There was a time when we believed that if something hurt it had to be good for us.  We’re a lot smarter now and realize that pain is an indicator that something is wrong.  We are also learning that not all pain is physical.  Increasingly it is emotional and psychological and that is especially true in the case of the pain inflicted on owners by residential associations.  Finally homeowners are refusing to accept the false assertion that HOAs protect property values.  They are no longer willing to put up with the abuses common in residential associations just to protect the mythical notion that their property will be worth a dollar or two more if they spend thousands of dollars in medical bills.  They know it is a lie.  So why, they now ask, do we really need HOAs?  Who really benefits from them?  

Deborah Goonan joins us On The Commons. Deborah is a prolific blogger and a tireless researcher.  Her blog, Independent American  Communities  tracks all the latest trends and stories in America’s many forms of residential associations. Lately she has been writing about HOA members who are talking about disbanding the corporate structure of the neighborhood.  We talk to Deborah about the growing number of homeowners looking into dissolving the corporation that is part and parcel of their neighborhood and returning it to the people who live there.  She tells us that homeowners like their homes and their neighborhoods, they just can’t stand their HOAs and all that goes with them.  In a recent blog about Walnut Grove, an Omaha neighborhood, she starts with a quote that reads: “The first step to getting what you want is having the courage to get rid of what you don’t want.”  And that’s just what some homeowners are doing.  They want their homes, their neighborhoods and to be left alone to live in peace and to get what they want they need to get rid of what they don’t want – the HOA.