There is a plethora of HOAs in the Coeur d’Alene area due to the slew of planned developments that have occurred here in the last 30 years and especially in the last ten. Most of these HOAs are fairly minimal when it comes to their dues (typically about $300-$350 per year) and their Covenants, Conditions & Restrictions (CC&Rs), which typically only restrict you from painting your home certain colors, from parking an RV or boat in your driveway for more than a few days at a time, and making sure your front yard doesn’t look like a jungle. The HOA dues typically pay for things like common area maintenance (watering and mowing community green spaces). All these things can help maintain the feel of the neighborhood and your property value. Still, they’re not for everyone and there have been some pretty egregious horror stories of HOA boards running amok. Here are some things to consider when buying a home in an HOA.

Pros:

• CC&Rs mean that the overall look of a neighborhood will be maintained. We all remember that house that had a few cars in various states of repair sitting out front along with a bunch of trash, or several animals that turned the yard into a dirty mess. That bothers a lot of people and even if it doesn’t bother you, when it comes time to resell your home, the price will be impacted by what’s around it.
• Some HOAs will provide lawn care and snow removal from your sidewalk and even your driveway. These come with higher dues, but they can be worth it if it’s something you can’t or don’t want to take care of.
• North Idaho is pretty safe, but some people like the added security that some HOAs inside a gated community provide.

Cons:

• HOA fees, like property taxes here in Idaho, aren’t static. My yearly dues have risen about $60 since buying four years ago. It’s not a lot, especially given the overall cost of living increases nationwide, but it’s something to be aware of. 
• HOAs may provide services you don’t need for a price you don’t want. If you don’t care about having a community swimming pool, park, or club house, then why pay the added cost that comes with having access to those things.
• If you have a boat or an RV you want to store at your home and there’s no room in a garage or behind a backyard fence, this is something to consider as this is a common restriction in most HOAs. Don’t be too quick to dismiss a property over this, though. If you otherwise like the house and the price is right, there are several RV and boat storage facilities all around North Idaho that charge as little as $50 per month.
• Some HOAs limit rentals. Typically this is limited to restrictions on short-term rentals (like Airbnb or VRBO) but occasionally might forbid all rentals. This is more typical in a condo or townhome development.
• Beware the “Karens” (and no offense if your name is actually Karen). It’s not typical, but if you get a HOA president who is drunk on power, they can make your life a living hell. One crazy story from this Buzzfeed article had an HOA fining a homeowner for a “well” on the property. It turned out the “well” was at another house with the same address number but a different street and wasn’t a well but a decorative planter.

If you do choose to look at homes in an HOA, the most important thing is to review the CC&Rs and the financial statements to ensure there aren’t any restrictions you wouldn’t want and that the HOA isn’t in danger of going bankrupt. Reviewing recent HOA meeting minutes can also be helpful as they’ll alert you to how things are run and whether those “Karens” are raising a fuss about someone’s grass being a quarter-inch too tall. A good real estate agent will help you do this.

If you’re curious about what CC&Rs, meetings minutes, and a budget typically look like, here’s a link to the HOA I’m a resident of. It also happens to the be the largest HOA in the area. I’ve had no complaints in the four years I’ve lived here and the only interaction I’ve ever had with them was when I had to email the property management company the new color we were painting our house, which the quickly approved. We even cut down a large tree in our front yard about a year after we moved in, something we were technically supposed to get approval for but didn’t, and I never heard anything about it so the HOA seems pretty live and let live.