There are a lot more places that have them than have them; there is no city of any size in NC that requires them; I don't know what city this guy is talking about, but it's likely it's a suburb of some big city; too bad he didn't have the nerve to use his name and city.
Not in the Phoenix metro area. I would say better than 90% of the homes are in an HOA, and many of the other 10% never go on the market.