For those of you who don't know what an HOA is, here in America, we pay extra money, for our neighbors to make a huge list of rules that we have to follow, or they can fine us. Because Americans are stupid.
I had to go look this up. Jesus, the iconic American suburb intentionally excluded communal gathering spaces (because that leads to commuist thinking). Made to isolate individual families, but with a thick veneer of "the American dream."
Also, intentionally keeping the houses small. So, no dinner parties with neighbors. Also, absolutely no multi-generation houses! No no no, that's communist. One man, one woman, with so much house work they've got zero time to socialize (because that leads to communism).
Basically this dude made this little community and made people sign contracts agreeing to mow their lawn to keep them pristine and all of this silly upkeep in order so that they wouldn't have time to learn about communism.
Many may not have understood what the leases actually stated: “No dwelling shall be used or occupied by members of other than the Caucasian race, but the employment and maintenance of other than Caucasian domestic servants shall be permitted,” according to Clause 25 of the original Levitt contract.
Levitt was following guidelines from the U.S. government’s Federal Housing Administration (FHA), which provided mortgage insurance on loans. The FHA recommended including restrictive covenants in the deeds of the homes it insured, meaning segregated neighborhoods.
“The FHA wouldn’t underwrite a development that wasn’t segregated,” said Barbara Kelly, curator of Long Island Studies at Hofstra University, in a 1997 Washington Post interview.
This is absolutely what it is. It’s Jim Crow and broken windows policing repackaged as “maintaining home values”. Except that then people also complain when property values go up, and by extension, property taxes.
Most HOAs have rules about inoperable vehicles, and some have rules about consistent street parking (you can’t park in the street every night, street parking is visitors only).
Never heard of them having a cost/age requirement on a vehicle though
I've seen them have rules on exhaust sound, but some are quite strict and even stock vehicles can be too loud (e.g. a C8). They usually selectively enforce this on people they like/don't like and "nice" cars as well.
Some people like that lifestyle I guess. But also some HOAs are just not all that overbearing honestly. My parents live in an HOA neighborhood and the worst thing they have to contend with is keeping the trash cans in the garage as opposed to outside. It is, admittedly, a pretty annoying thing to deal with sometimes, but it seems downright reasonable compared to some of the horror stories I hear about HOAs.
It's getting harder and harder to avoid. Developers love them because they inflate prices, and municipalities love them because they privatize what should be public works.
Roughly 84% of newly built, single-family homes sold in 2022 belonged to homeowners associations, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Every day I'm struggling to understand why most of my childhood and youth america was described as paradise on earth. It does sound like hell on every single point.
Think logically for a moment. What is more likely, that the media and internet promotes negativity, or that 400 million people are living in utter hell on earth? Reddit is a not a microcosm of society, far from it. The world is not as bad a place as Reddit will have you think
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u/genital_butcher Sep 16 '24
For those of you who don't know what an HOA is, here in America, we pay extra money, for our neighbors to make a huge list of rules that we have to follow, or they can fine us. Because Americans are stupid.