I live in a rural area, 14 homes, private road and road maintenance association. No HOA. Most of the properties are 5, 10, 15 acres, some even larger. A woman from “the big city” bought a house on the smallest parcel, quite a bit less than a quarter acre, and she's now fighting tooth and nail to force an HOA on us. In her three years here she STILL has not had to pay a dime for anything, since she's holding up any kind of road work with her HOA silliness.
Never never never will we submit to an HOA here. She can just go back to San Jose if she wants to live like that.
My blood boils when I read these HOA nightmare stories.
Never never never will we submit to an HOA here. The problem is, people make lots of money in the inflated market of the city, and then go out to the country and buy it out and then impose their will. The cancer of NYC is spreading out into New York State, and families who have been there for several generations can't afford to stay, as the cost of living skyrockets.