|
I have lived in older neighborhoods that have had no HOA and have just recently moved into a house in a subdivision with an HOA. I can tell you why we moved into it but I can't speak for other people.
The first house I had wasn't bad, it did need some work, but what would you expect. After my first child was born, the house started becoming to small for us. The second house I lived in was a rental. We were doing a rent to own thing but in the process found that there were to many things we didn't like about the house and decided not to buy it. Also, it was starting to get small as well after my second son was born.
When we began looking, we looked at existing houses in non-cookie cutter editions, existing houses in cookie cutter editions and new houses. We finally decided to go with a new house because we found a developer that had nice houses, non-cookie cutter and were afordable. We didn't want to move into a house and spend a small fortune having to fix things we found wrong.
The subdivision we moved into has about 10-12 different floor plans which can be reversed. Also people have customized the floorplans for their individual tastes. The only common thing about the exterior of the house is the shape. Everyone gets to choose their own brick color, brick design, paint color, flower bed plants and tree. Lots are generally the same width, but vary in length and then of course there are the cul de sac (sp) lots. Some people even added the third car garage.
The HOA isn't bad, they don't restrict what you can do on/with your property to any great length. If you have a boat or RV, it can not be seen from the street, gotta keep your grass mowed (duh) and no long term parking on the street. As far as diversity goes, we do have a mix of backgrounds in the neighborhood. I do wish the stores were a bit closer but they aren't. Neighborhood becomes a big thing when you start thinking about your kids playing outside with other kids. Things like other kids in the neighborhood, cars speeding down the streets and other things.
Our decision was not based on a lets live here to look like everyone else, it was lets live here because it's affordable, in a nice area, and we will probably be in this house for the next 20 years or more.
|