short answer: there’s a misguided perception that a small patch of grass makes a house more valuable

long answer: HOAs are an illusion of self governance. in reality they serve banks and have become a common feature of nearly all housing developments. the banks originally acquired the land via violent means, declaring it their own despite the land already having residents in the form of indigenous people. it was then the banks who funded the violent enslavement of Africans and their trafficking accross the globe into the African Diaspora. the banks exist to serve white supremacy. they have done this in a variety of ways through the centuries. these are not all the ways:

1. creating a split deed between the surface rights and mineral rights
2. enforcement of structures of poverty through coagulating wealth
3. entering contracts with slavers demanding perpetual enslavement of trafficked humans
4. sponsoring segregationist policies
5. redlining (not approving loans for minority homes and business purchases in certain parts of a city)
6. the creation of HOAs to enforce white upper middle class ideals on lower middle class and working poor families

They’re fairly ubiquitous in the States, regardless of blue or red.

A lot of HOAs are managed by the community to establish community rules and create a common fund for things like landscaping and snow removal. An example of some common rules are prohibitions on keeping broken vehicles anywhere except your garage, and keeping lawns from becoming overgrown to the point where it creates a problem for neighbors. For the most part, those kinds of HOAs are not too intrusive and can be a net positive for the community.

However, a growing number of them are created and managed by the development companies that built the homes, and their primary objective is to maintain “property values” in community. I.E. they create and rules that promote uniformity, and will put a lien on non-conforming homeowners property. This results in the HOA literally taking ownership of the house away from the non-confirming homeowner and evicting them from the community. Then the development company will resell the house at full value.

I’ve heard stories of people being fined hundreds of dollars for simple things like planting a garden, painting a door, and hanging new curtains.

this is just simply not true in the context of this discussion. these people want to grow native plants in a vulnerable ecosystem that has been limited down in scope through mining operations, human exploitation, and encroachment from non-native invasive species. in particular in central pennsylvania where this is occuring gypsome weed is choking out the native flowers that pollinators depend on.

in particular they are looking to grow sunflowers and goldenrod which are native to their area and offer a high value to local pollinators. however, these plants violate most HOA regulations because they grow taller than 6 feet

What? Maybe in Germany, but that is not the case in the US where the biome has only been exposed to humans for 1/10th the amount of time as in Europe. “Native” is pretty strictly defined here ecologically, legally, and culturally.

It really just means “plants that aren’t grass” - as often the “native” plant will end up being some tall grass from another continent or region.

No? It means “Plants that are native to this continent/region”.

If the plant was from another continent or region, it would be definition not be native.

There’s very little people can do. In order to fix things you usually need to get on the board, but the people who run HOAs are usually retired nimby assholes and they hold meetings while most in the neighborhood are at work so nobody can oppose them. They then reelect themselves to the board and the cycle continues. HOAs are usually a thing set up by the builders to make their lives easier for some paperwork and stuff. They absolutely suck 99% of the time.

Native plant garden bans aren’t just an HOA thing. Many counties or cities ban them too. Much of it stems for chemical manufacturers selling the white picket fence image after WWII to veterans receiving funding to buy a home. The chemical manufacturers pushed hard for that image so they could keep making as much profit as they made manufacturing for weapons during the wartime.

This means that trying to fight your HOA on yards is useless, you have to go higher and it’s a big big fight

HOAs offsets the cost and maintenance of roads and other civil services, so many counties love them because it keeps costs down for the government while charging the neighborhood. It keeps taxes down overall.

HOA benefit to have their own fiefdom, that allows them to weld near unchecked power because the turn out for board elections are even lower than most local elections.

Homeowners have the ability dissolve their HOA but they don’t because people don’t vote.

You hear about the shitty ones, tbh.

Mine covers the community pool, a few small playgrounds, gym, community garden, etc. Thats it.

No getting approval to have your door be blue instead of white, no measuring your grass height, or any of those shenanigans.

Dismantling them would require somehow introducing a vote to abolish the hoa, and a lot of people involved in hoas are ancient NIMBYs that have nothing better to do after retirement that be in other people’s business. The purpose of an HOA is to ostensibly preserve property values, and only homeowners are allowed to vote, not any poor suckers that are renting and actually living there.

and like most things that are bad about the us, they exist because of racism

You just can’t handle all the freedom.

To add to some of the other replies (road repair, etc) the one we used to live in also offered access to a full pool area with life guards. This included a lap pool (with certain adult only times), toddler shallow pool, a medium (standing/walking) depth that had some fountains in it and a splash pad. A decent sized play ground. There was also a larger event space with a kitchen that you could rent (price was free, just had to schedule a slot and sign a damages waver). The fee also included “beautification” things like all the flower beds and landscaping/grass maintenance in all the public areas, which included a 2 mile loop running/walking path with the various body-weight workout stops. Tennis courts, community events with food/games/etc. It’s about $880 a year now i think, and the only rules were really just keep your place looking decent. We didnt have any issues because i always mowed the lawn and trimmed the bushes anyways…there’s also guidelines for not painting your house crazy colors or building really weird structures, but it was pretty easy for your average lifestyle all things considered.

I guess really like an apartment complex, but you have your own house you can do whatever you want to with- for better or worse. Im no advocate for HOAs, not even this one. I will never live in one again…but not all HOAs are equal is my only point. Some are $1000 year with literally nothing to “give back”. Eff all that.

HOAs have a lot of applications that aren’t horrible, you just probably dont hear about them. Neighborhoods with HOAs are often centrally planned, so there will be common areas that require upkeep like pools, clubhouses, parks, etc. They essentially take on a form of government role. In a lot of neighborhoods that are not part of an incorporated city, they do things like trash collection, road upkeep, snow plowing, etc.

I’ve lived in 2 places with an HOA, and in the one, all they did was the landscaping, even around all the yards of the houses. In the other, they handled the park/pool/clubhouse, and they did trash collection.

The down sides are often because the people in charge are just retirees who hunger for power, and there isnt much oversight from real government. Most people dont care enough to try to oust the bad leaders, so they stay in control, and they often do things that are illegal, but no one calls them out on it.

They were made to harass minorities as far as I’m concerned.

Or sooner move into a pile of feces than into a house with a HOA
You end up with what you put up with

have few to no positive effects

The purpose of an HOA (in theory) is to divide the costs of land maintenance across land owners.

In practice, HOAs are routinely abused for rent seeking and stigmatization of minorities. But that’s not a problem specific to the legal arrangement. It’s a consequence of the managers and members.

Check out the HBO show “Neighbors”. A great look into the mind of a land owner.

If you want to see the positives of HOAs, Google “What are the legal options for dealing with my neighbor Reddit.”

Most people have a significant portion of their wealth tied into their property. Getting a new drug addicted neighbor three years before retirement could lead to unintended financial consequences. There are good HOAs, it’s just that nobody complains about them.

They’re fine to terrible depending on where you’re at. In our neighborhood they make sure no junky cars (cars on blocks) are left outside and that you don’t leave massive oil spills in your driveway and that your house is painted when it starts to peel. They also have planted a bunch of native gardens and maintain them and the dog bag dispensers and poop bins. Would just be better if the city did it, but whatever.

Pretty much nothing of what that other user said is true. HOAs host meetings at night usually, anyone can come, yes people don’t come and vote but that’s usually because people are fine with their HOA. They can’t vote themselves back in. If they sucked 99% of the time they wouldn’t exist, because getting rid of them is dead simple, literally show up and vote.

I grew up, and have been living in apartment buildings all my life, so that’s what I’m used to. It has always been a neutral to positive experience, but nobody really talk about those.

Should we go down the list of things Americans can’t do but the rest of the world can? The irony of holding up freedom as their cornerstone while keeping the largest inmate population over bullshit without even a trial.

When you’re in an HOA, you’ve contracted away some of your rights to property.

But that’s the devil’s game of “property rights”. So many people think they’ve gained sovereignty because money changed hands. They don’t ask how property originates and why it was up for sale to begin with.

That’s not a contradiction. HOAs suck but they’re a contractual relationship that you enter voluntarily.

Wait are you referring to the flat green lawns or the native / overgrown one?

What’s the point of even having a yard if it looks like the ones in the picture?

Dog bathroom.

Yeah native plants does not mean you have to keep your lawn an overgrown jungle.

I’m new to this sub and consider myself anti-lawn. Can you recommend non-grass vegetation that is still easy for kids to play on and people to walk through?

Thanks for the additional context