Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Residents give HOA lifestyle seal of approval

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The vast majority, 71 percent of homeowner association (HOA) residents polled, said they are satisfied with HOA life, and 17 percent said they were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with their communities. Only 12 percent expressed discontent.

by Broderick Perkins
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Deadline Newsroom - Only 12 percent of community and homeowners association (HOA) residents expressed some level of discontent with their communities, according to recently released research commissioned by Community Associations Institute (CAI).

The vast majority, 71 percent, said they are satisfied with HOA life, and 17 percent said they were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with their communities.

For the 60 million people who live in the nation's 350,000 HOA communities, buying a home in an HOA community is a lot like buying a share in a closely held, publicly traded real estate holding company, governed by an ever-changing regulatory system and managed by volunteers -- the neighbors.

HOAs have seen their share of shoddy construction leading to nasty building defect litigation as well as poor management and disgruntled residents, but most residents are quite satisfied with how they operate.

"Americans have weathered difficult times, and that would normally create more negative views toward most institutions," Lincoln Hobbs, a member of CAI's College of Community Association Lawyers and president of CAI's affiliate Foundation for Community Association Research, said in a statement.

"That hasn't happened in the case of community associations. That says a lot about the dedication and skill of the vast majority of homeowner volunteers and professionals who govern and manage these communities."

You've got news...news that really hits home, right here: High Marks Given to Homeowners Associations




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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Have you seen the questions in the poll purchased by CAI?

Have you seen anything regarding the methodology of who was contacted for the "poll"?

Is there any legitimate basis for CAI's failure to post the survey questions and method of selecting individuals for the poll?

CAI is a trade-lobby group represented primarily by HOA management companies and HOA attorneys. This group is interested primarily in preying upon homeowners in HOAs as well as the HOA corporation itself. Their livelihood depends upon painting a false picture of HOA corporations to mislead prospective purchasers.


CAI's "official statements" are often made in equivocal terms. There is often more than one way to interpret their representations and the representations are made to mislead listeners/readers as to the .

For example, you might hear the claim that "HOAs preserve property values" but notice that the "for who" part is left out. Owners are misled into believing that the HOA corporations preserve value for the owners. Nothing could be further from the truth. To the extent that any value is preserved, such value is preserved for the vendors of the HOA corporation - not the owner.

Consider the claim that "Americans have weathered difficult times, and that would normally create more negative views toward institutions...That hasn't happened in the case of community associations". About the only true thing that you can take away is perhaps there aren't "more negative views towards HOAs". That's because the views are already extremely negative (despite CAI's claims). But phrasing it this way almost makes it sound like people like HOAs.

The organization's paid-for results are really quite self-serving but what is the point of a poll when homeowners don't have any meaningful choice? It's as if they are there to tell you "don't look at the man behind the curtain" or "can't you see the emperor's beautiful clothes". Hint: the emperor isn't wearing any clothes and CAI is a trade-lobby group that prey upon homeowners having property burdened with an HOA corporation.