April 1, 2026 | Mark Luis Foster
April Fool’s Day is in full swing, with local weather forecasters telling us that we have an ice storm here in Minnesota to deal with tonight. Silly weather people! We know you’re joking… really funny …
Speaking of joking, our friends at Realtor.com seem to have it out for us HOAs. They lovingly point out:
It’s getting harder for homebuyers to find properties outside a homeowners association. About 44% of homes for sale last year had HOA fees attached to them, according to a recent report from Realtor.com. Meanwhile, a 2025 report from the Foundation for Community Association Research found 66% of newly completed homes are in community associations.
They forgot to mention that new construction in the USA that’s in an HOA is 84%. At least they found a positive comment from our (real) friends at FirstService Residential:
That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, according to David Diestel, CEO of FirstService Residential, a property management firm that oversees 9,000 communities in the U.S. and Canada. “These are wonderful places,” he says. Depending on the type of community, HOA fees may cover amenities, maintenance of common areas and future upgrades. “Developers are building what people want.”
The article focuses on “the affordability crisis,” which is of course an issue for everyone. Rarely though, does anyone point out that HOA fees typically include cost items that are likely paid for out-of-pocket in a similar home that’s not in an HOA. Homeowners still need to buy insurance, they may have gap coverage, save for maintenance costs, snow removal, landscaping, buy internet service, membership to a pool, etc., even if they’re sitting across the street where an HOA does not exist.
Meanwhile, the median HOA fee increased to $135 per month last year, Realtor.com says. The median fee was $125 in 2024 and $108 in 2019. Those increases aren’t enough to wipe out the savings from reduced mortgage rates in early 2026, but not everyone has HOA fees that low. About 3 million homes paid more than $500 a month in 2024, according to estimates from the Census Bureau’s 2024 American Community Survey.
There is a bulk billing argument that is never defined by the media. For example, in my HOA I was paying more than $100 per month for “high speed internet service” a few years ago. Our HOA negotiated a deal offered through our property management company that lowered that rate to $29.99, a bulk billing example that is advantageous for HOA owners.
HOA living is a choice of living. At the Network, we always say that people need to go in “with eyes wide open.”
Read the Realtor.com report on affordability HERE.
