I think any HOA needs to be very carefully investigated and homeowners within that HOA should be interviewed before buying a home within one. They're all SO different.
My sister lives in a really nice HOA neighborhood. Their fees go to pay for parks, a club house, a gorgeous pool. All the homes and yards are beautiful, and the rules are quite reasonable.
My brother also lives in a totally different HOA and is currently deeply embroiled in an expensive lawsuit with them. (My brother and many of his neighbors against the HOA)
We lived in a townhouse with an HOA. The HOA kept the lawns mowed, the sidewalks clear and salted in the winter, the exterior of the homes painted. I didn't mind paying those HOA fees.
We own a house in Florida that also has HOA fees. That HOA has some stupid rules (no more than two pets, for instance) as well as the standard rules about keeping the lawns maintained and not allowing your trashcans to sit out in public view except on trash day....tons of other nit-noid rules. And not one of those rules is enforced. Even in the brand new neighborhood, yards got totally weedy...people parked cars on the grass....trash cans hung out wherever...fences fell into disrepair and didn't get fixed. But we still have to pay the damned fees, even though they don't do squat for the neighborhood.
I currently live in a lovely little neighborhood of very old houses. The yards are all beautiful, the homes are well maintained....and no HOA hovering over anyone's heads to make sure it happens.
Someday when we retire, I plan to live on a nice plot of land out in the country and no one will tell me what I can and can't do in my own house.
I guess it all depends on what you really want out of your home and your neighbors. Just make sure if you DO get into an HOA, you make sure it's what you want it to be.
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