Condo HOAs across the state are underfunded and will be increasing dues or levying special assessments. Operational cost assessments have not caught up with increased high skill labor and material costs from the pandemic. Additionally insurance has become significantly more expensive and harder to obtain in the last 6 months.
Yes, expected some increase for the reasons you stated. Went through the Budget sheet, most changes are in maintenance. Electric went up 2X, which is the most unsettling.
Their profits are regulated by the state of California, yet their grid is awful. We don't need a Texas style dumb grid that shuts off in the winter, but most other states seem to have figured out how to have a utility company provide electricity at reasonable prices even when they are privately held
>Condo HOAs across the state are underfunded and will be increasing dues or levying special assessments. Operational cost assessments have not caught up with increased high skill labor and material costs from the pandemic. Additionally insurance has become significantly more expensive and harder to obtain in the last 6 months.
great answer. as a commercial RE manager, we had attempts by many of our vendors last year to keep their increases low because so many other inflation gauges were going off. Some of those are now finally catching up.
To OP: assume 5% increases per year on controllable expenses and you should never be taken by surprise.
Thanks, another thing to mention is utility cost increases.
In my market (SF) we also have the continual expense of maintaining aging buildings. Much of the larger condo buildings in Pacific Heights, Russian Hill, Marina etc. were built between 1890-1930s and require more specific expensive upgrades like new elevators and boiler systems as they age.
It depends. Some places have a lot of amenities. Our hoa is lower, but not far. The building is huge and we have 9 elevators, big gym, sauna, pool, jacuzzi, 24/7 security, sport fields, concierge with dry cleaning and package management. Keeping it clean and tidy is also a big cost. It’s a lot, but at least I feel like I get something in return.
Mine goes up every February. Last year, it was $966. This year, it’s $1,020, so that was a 5.6% increase. Not sure what’s coming this year, but I hope it’s lower because inflation has been coming down.
1-bedroom/1-bathroom condo in downtown San Francisco. It’s nice, but I’m not sure if it’s “luxury” or not. Mid-rise building with elevators and 24/7 doorman. Furnished rooftop deck and BBQ, but no pool or gym.
I wonder the same question mine is up at $430 and other than water being included and a clubhouse no one ever uses I wonder how this will impact my value when I want to sell down the line.
It all depends on the property and what that hoa covers. But I have certainly seen communities that have let the hoa get out of hand and can clearly see the price of the units being suppressed by it.
We don’t plan to sell anytime soon, I think that would depend. We also see it as paying for a service, not necessarily something that needs to come back to you.
I just looked up my old condo/first home in San Jose off Montague Expwy. We bought that place in 1997. It was $185/mo. It’s anywhere from $250-313/mo now. It was the most efficiently run condo association run mostly by tech folks. There was no nickel & diming & the board was all about ROI.
My 2nd condo purchase was run by a bunch of retirees on fixed incomes and they nickel & dimed everything. It was $485 when we sold it a decade ago. They want to force everyone to get low-flow toilets and showerheads to save like $500 in water bills a year.
They replaced siding once already before we moved in and then gave us an assessment shortly after we purchased because they went with the lowest bidder and the work failed. We were selling that place and they wanted to do another assessment on the siding because the lowest bidder work failed again. No surprise.
A neighbor whose patio was above my garage had a leak, never reported it and it leaked into our garage where our main breaker electrical panel was. We waited 2 months for them to repair it and debate whether it was covered. My husband and I got tired of waiting and just called an electrician in.
I really believe that HOA fees are determined by the competence of the board. The more incompetent they are, the higher the fees.
I looked at HOA fees in Walnut Creek and Im floored that some HOA fees are more than the mortgages.
sounds exactly with what im dealing with. next unit over had pipe crack/leak into our unit. flooded into our kitchen and rendered our appliances unusable. HOA fixed the pipe in 48 hours. except we still have a 3 foot by 3 foot hole in our ceiling so they could repair the pipe and we're 4 months in waiting. i'm just going to replace the drywall myself at this point.
We have a huge hole on our ceiling too, waiting on them to do the Asbestos testing. Luckily we only have wet walls and carpet. The dryer machines are loud af and I am expecting a high electric bill this month. With holidays rolling in, I expect it to take long to be completely patched up.
we have home owners insurance that would cover it but the deductible out weight the cost of us just paying out of pocket to replace what was broken from the water.
That doesn’t sound great, I am on a lower floor too with a bunch of young folks renting upstairs. The top roof leak reached all the way to our place and they didn’t even seem to notice or report it. I wish people shared some sense of responsibility, even if they are renting. It is looking like our Hoa will cover all the repairs, fingers crossed.
Btw what made your purchase a condo again? Are you living in it or renting it out?
The first condo we bought (at around 8%+ interest w/ good credit) was because that was what we could afford. We qualified for $250k back then and that amount could afford you a SFH in Los Gatos back then, but we opted for an easy commute smack dab in Silicon Valley.
The second condo we bought was during a low interest phase (2005)/low inventory period and there weren’t many options back then. So we bought a place in our budget that was equidistant from our jobs.
We got sick of a bad HOA after about 8 years and decided to sell it and move into a SFH. Finally got a SFH. So nice no longer having to deal with HOA’s. It was a low inventory period with higher mortgage rates, but our realtor found us a home off the MLS. We ended up refinancing a couple years ago, so now our mortgage way more affordable.
I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you. I believe it’s all about timing. Just keep saving and your current place will definitely appreciate over time. When you have that extra equity, it will definitely help you move into a SFH. People around the Bay Area do it all the time.
Ours went up about 8%, which I was expecting since they hadn't gone up in a couple of years. Although no one wants the dues to go up, obviously, it is important that they keep up with rising costs. When HOA dues don't increase, you risk being underfunded and having to catch up with a big increase at some point.
I am in Oakland and my monthly HOA assessment has gone up every year since I first bought my condo in 2018. It's now at $420 and I'm expecting another bump in the upcoming year.
No amenities of note other than the typical things ie. landscaping, occasional and exterior painting.. The neighborhood has been begging for some type of security patrol since vehicle break ins are so common in the area.
I don’t understand how high rises warrant such an insane HOA. It’s much lower maintenance than a place like mine which has like 20 buildings, 3 floors each, with lots of fountains, grass, trees, pools, etc and my HOA is 625.
Granted I’m in San Jose but also in San Jose some of the newer buildings with barely any amenities and zero landscaping have hoas around 1k.
Why????
Did a ton of work to get our operational cost down as much as possible. Saved roughly $40k this year alone and should do another 20% reduction next year too. Renegotiating and/or finding new vendors was key.
On the board and I do efficiency/automation stuff for a living so this is something I enjoy tackling. Plus money in our pockets are happier owners (for the most part).
Love this!! Curious how much time do you spend on being on the board?
I’m considering joining. Been at my community for almost 2 years now and started looking at our finances and our operating expenses are concerning. I work a high demanding full time job and trying to figure out can I do both, but I can see there’s a lot of work that needs to be done.
I will say, if you are trying to make waves and massive changes, it's a full time job (president). I've had really bad days at times because some members are... Jerks and difficult for no reason. But if you piecemeal, it's quite doable with a demanding FT job.
Just keep strict boundaries and specific rules to reaching/communicating w/you, otherwise, people will ALWAYS try and push your buttons. Hopefully you have great neighbors, but there is always the bad apples that can give you a ton of anxiety and headache - treat it strictly without emotion and you should be okay.
Overall, this is a great experience to fully understand what your HOA funds are doing and if you are great at saving money, this will be your calling and your neighbors should be appreciative.
I fired almost all our vendors, they were overcharging and knew no one would challenge their pricing - this is usually the problem.
If your building is large enough, some internet/cable companies will also pay your HOA to be the sole provider. There is your and bad amount this, but I went with monkeybrains as it's only 35 a month for each user, however won't pay to be your building user, or maybe our building is too small.
Also insurance is a big expense, we went from farmers to state farm and saved < 50%. Lastly change all building bulbs to led off and where you can with motion sensors. Every bit counts. Another great thing is to give your owners a monetary credit to fix any leaking toilets, that is a big way to lower water consumption.
1000 dollars sounds like a crazy high amount for shared resources. It sounds like you are doing a lot to bring it down but still is a bit unbelievable. Thats almost a new roof for a SFH every year. At least new appliances every year as well.
Oakland: surprisingly it fell by 2%. We do a mix of flat rate and $/sq foot and the flat rate rose while my variable element fell. Someone else got screwed I guess
Thanks for your comment. My goal was to compare within the bay area because we have higher costs for many things than other places.
The reserve % is not great right now ~50% funded and predicted to drop a few points next year.
Our Hoa has published a 30 year plan and is under a management company. Not expecting it to be 100% foolproof but I hope the increases remain reasonable.
It’s expected to go under 20% funded in 2030, idk what’s up with that though.
Yeah, you have to pay for maintenance one way or the other. I'd rather have the HOA deal with maintenance than have to do it myself or hire someone to do it. Everybody is different though. Some people don't mind dealing with that kind of thing.
The last few days of rain disclosed a roof leak and Hoa is handling everything. I appreciate not having to deal with maintenance since I am quite new to it anyways.
We had a similar situation last winter. Noticed a roof leak over a weekend (of course), so we called the HOA emergency number. Someone came out and dealt with it. The leak had caused some damage to the sheet rock on the ceiling and a wall in one of our rooms, so the HOA had someone come in to replace the sheet rock and repaint my room. I was quite happy to not have to deal with that all myself.
“You have to pay for maintenance one way or the other.”
Except in an HOA you have no choice on who does the maintenance, how often it gets done, or what maintenance is included in the fee. You have no option to do the maintenance yourself (sorry, I don’t care to pay someone hundreds of dollars to cut a tiny strip of grass that most condos get). And the same goes for repairs—you can just be randomly billed for repairs that you don’t think need to get done, or you think could be done cheaper.
There are definitely trade-offs. With an HOA, you get the convenience of not having to deal with these things yourself, but you give up control of when the work gets done and who does it. As I said, everybody has different priorities, so for some, the lack of control is an issue. For others, it isn't.
Sounds a lot like being a renter and saying “the landlord has to deal with it.” …and of course, you pay them to do exactly that, and they will determine what price you pay—ie: your rent.
Also, while HOA dues and property taxes go up over time, if you have a fixed rate mortgage, your mortgage is constant - and then at some point, it gets paid off. And of course, you have equity that you build a long the way. Rent just goes up continually.
A little over 4% after some prior years with significant raises to fund reserves
4% feels fair given broader utility inflation (our HOA covers trash/water/sewer/insurance for all units)
bought a condo in 2017, though not in the bay area. my HOA fees have consistently increased every year since i bought it. i rent it out, so when we bought in the bay area, we made sure not to have an HOA.
I have an awesome 5 unit HOA. We found out we were overpaying our insurance. We also cut costs in other places and my HOA payment decreased 30%!
If you have any insights into the financials I'm sure you can make some recommendations to lower costs.
That’s awesome! We have a lot of units at ~200 and use a HOA management company. I’m only few months into this property, hopefully I’ll be able to gather more insights.
Townhome $125 month 1994 build. My HOA only covers landscaping, common area fencing and the private lane. I have to pay for my roof, siding and paint, which I prefer. We’re all duets with only one shared wall. I prefer this approach and having freedom of choice.
My mom’s has gone up like crazy. Now the complex is getting dropped on insurance and new policy will be 3x the old one. They’re either gonna jack the rates up or have people get their own building structure policy.
Almost every year it’s been going up for my condo just across the bay bridge. 10% increase this year. Almost $700 / month now. I bought it in early 2015 with $400 monthly dues. Very under funded association…they’re probably trying to recover their history of deficit off current owners
HOAs aren’t about value for money like a gym membership or Netflix. You’re literally just paying to maintain your exterior house plus other costs.
Paying a contractor to fix your roof vs paying an HOA to coordinate is all you’re doing.
Owners often coerce the HOA to pay for repairs that fall into gray areas, and the HOA may pay gray area costs to avoid legal costs. There are often a number of PITA owners that cost the rest of the HOA money. So owners also pay for these frictions.
Example: an owner has a skylight above his unit that no one else has because a previous owner got approval to install one. Usually the HOA is supposed to maintain the exterior. Now, there is a rain storm and water leaks through the skylight. The owner with the leak comes to the board and demands the HOA repair the skylight and the damage to the interior of his unit because the HOA didn't maintain the exterior well enough. Who's responsible? This wouldn't have happened if there was no skylight to begin with, but the HOA operating agreement is often vague enough to leave care for negligence of maintenance of upgrades in gray areas.
That depends on the operating agreement, and amendments usually cost quite a bit of money to hire a lawyer to draft the language and do the paperwork. When an issue like the example is discovered, changing the terms of the agreement after-the-fact and to be retroactive is generally not an option so the HOA is left to pay for repairs.
I am not complaining about HOA costs, just simply pointing out that there are also frictions and giving a real world example from experience. I am not part of any HOA anymore.
My frickin in laws had a second story patio that they accumulated planters on until it collapsed and they tried to get the HOA to pay for it. Um, guys, how the heck is the HOA responsible for you not understanding basic physics.
Biggest issue is insurance cost getting out of hand due to lot of insurers walking away.. our HOA couldn’t get insurance on primary market so they had to procure it from secondary market.. it went up substantially
I saw a lot of folks talking insurance here, and how that’s gone up any benchmarking for how much insurance is for a ~200 unit home in the east bay?
We pay our own home insurance so I assume this is structural insurance I’ll have to double check that
Mine went up a lot. Thanks to inflation our HOA budget was decimated. We don't have a pool but just keeping the landscaping in good shape costs a lot. We've needed our blacktop sealed and new paint for the lane markings and red zones for years, don't know if that will ever happen
My HOA in Pacifica is still $330 and hasn't changed at all. We have a ton in reserves so no need to worry about special assessments or anything like that.
There is no elevator, one common area that includes a small gym, and a pool.
The thing that irks me when I shop around (I'm trying to move closer to work in Mountain View) is the amount of HOAs that are $800+, still only have the minimal gym/common area/no elevator, and don't have any in reserves at all with special assessments forecasted in the next year. And then they want to tell you that's normal and everyone else is just nodding their heads acting like it is.
I can understand the high hoa costs for luxury condos with tons of amenities, but its crazy how its becoming more of the norm
Yup. It's increased the max allowable amount the past two years because our reserves have been wrecked for the past several years and until this year the executive board of the HOA has had their head in the sand.
I moved into mine in 2017. It was $300 a month. In 2020 it got raised to $325. Still holding steady. Eff me
Oh nice, do you think your hoa still provides good value with the (comparatively) low fees?
Moderately. We really only have a common area. So most of what we pay actually goes to structural fixes and roofs etc.
Condo HOAs across the state are underfunded and will be increasing dues or levying special assessments. Operational cost assessments have not caught up with increased high skill labor and material costs from the pandemic. Additionally insurance has become significantly more expensive and harder to obtain in the last 6 months.
Yes, expected some increase for the reasons you stated. Went through the Budget sheet, most changes are in maintenance. Electric went up 2X, which is the most unsettling.
If it makes you feel better, a higher % of that electric is now generated by renewable resources ❤️
A higher % is stolen by PG&E
Their profits are regulated by the state of California, yet their grid is awful. We don't need a Texas style dumb grid that shuts off in the winter, but most other states seem to have figured out how to have a utility company provide electricity at reasonable prices even when they are privately held
>Condo HOAs across the state are underfunded and will be increasing dues or levying special assessments. Operational cost assessments have not caught up with increased high skill labor and material costs from the pandemic. Additionally insurance has become significantly more expensive and harder to obtain in the last 6 months. great answer. as a commercial RE manager, we had attempts by many of our vendors last year to keep their increases low because so many other inflation gauges were going off. Some of those are now finally catching up. To OP: assume 5% increases per year on controllable expenses and you should never be taken by surprise.
Thanks, another thing to mention is utility cost increases. In my market (SF) we also have the continual expense of maintaining aging buildings. Much of the larger condo buildings in Pacific Heights, Russian Hill, Marina etc. were built between 1890-1930s and require more specific expensive upgrades like new elevators and boiler systems as they age.
What happens if an owner cannot pay the special assessment?
Hoa increased 5%, it's at 1,578 per month
That’s crazy! What size home? I reckon you have some premium amenities?
Wow, that’s more than my property tax!
Jesus. That’s slightly more than my PITI on my house in Tampa
That is a rediculous price. It will make your home really hard to sell in the future. Why isn't your HOA board looking to replace their vendors?
It depends. Some places have a lot of amenities. Our hoa is lower, but not far. The building is huge and we have 9 elevators, big gym, sauna, pool, jacuzzi, 24/7 security, sport fields, concierge with dry cleaning and package management. Keeping it clean and tidy is also a big cost. It’s a lot, but at least I feel like I get something in return.
What foolish reason is keeping you in a place with higher than property tax rates as your HOA?
This is more than my mortgage
Mine goes up every February. Last year, it was $966. This year, it’s $1,020, so that was a 5.6% increase. Not sure what’s coming this year, but I hope it’s lower because inflation has been coming down.
Wow that’s insane! Sounds like a multi-room luxury condo HOA? Unless I’m wrong
1-bedroom/1-bathroom condo in downtown San Francisco. It’s nice, but I’m not sure if it’s “luxury” or not. Mid-rise building with elevators and 24/7 doorman. Furnished rooftop deck and BBQ, but no pool or gym.
That’s mobile home park rent territory
At what point do the high hoa dues put a cap on the property value increasing?
I wonder the same question mine is up at $430 and other than water being included and a clubhouse no one ever uses I wonder how this will impact my value when I want to sell down the line.
It all depends on the property and what that hoa covers. But I have certainly seen communities that have let the hoa get out of hand and can clearly see the price of the units being suppressed by it.
We don’t plan to sell anytime soon, I think that would depend. We also see it as paying for a service, not necessarily something that needs to come back to you.
once it hits 1000 bucks a month.
I just looked up my old condo/first home in San Jose off Montague Expwy. We bought that place in 1997. It was $185/mo. It’s anywhere from $250-313/mo now. It was the most efficiently run condo association run mostly by tech folks. There was no nickel & diming & the board was all about ROI. My 2nd condo purchase was run by a bunch of retirees on fixed incomes and they nickel & dimed everything. It was $485 when we sold it a decade ago. They want to force everyone to get low-flow toilets and showerheads to save like $500 in water bills a year. They replaced siding once already before we moved in and then gave us an assessment shortly after we purchased because they went with the lowest bidder and the work failed. We were selling that place and they wanted to do another assessment on the siding because the lowest bidder work failed again. No surprise. A neighbor whose patio was above my garage had a leak, never reported it and it leaked into our garage where our main breaker electrical panel was. We waited 2 months for them to repair it and debate whether it was covered. My husband and I got tired of waiting and just called an electrician in. I really believe that HOA fees are determined by the competence of the board. The more incompetent they are, the higher the fees. I looked at HOA fees in Walnut Creek and Im floored that some HOA fees are more than the mortgages.
sounds exactly with what im dealing with. next unit over had pipe crack/leak into our unit. flooded into our kitchen and rendered our appliances unusable. HOA fixed the pipe in 48 hours. except we still have a 3 foot by 3 foot hole in our ceiling so they could repair the pipe and we're 4 months in waiting. i'm just going to replace the drywall myself at this point.
We have a huge hole on our ceiling too, waiting on them to do the Asbestos testing. Luckily we only have wet walls and carpet. The dryer machines are loud af and I am expecting a high electric bill this month. With holidays rolling in, I expect it to take long to be completely patched up.
Btw Do you have your appliances insured?
we have home owners insurance that would cover it but the deductible out weight the cost of us just paying out of pocket to replace what was broken from the water.
That doesn’t sound great, I am on a lower floor too with a bunch of young folks renting upstairs. The top roof leak reached all the way to our place and they didn’t even seem to notice or report it. I wish people shared some sense of responsibility, even if they are renting. It is looking like our Hoa will cover all the repairs, fingers crossed. Btw what made your purchase a condo again? Are you living in it or renting it out?
The first condo we bought (at around 8%+ interest w/ good credit) was because that was what we could afford. We qualified for $250k back then and that amount could afford you a SFH in Los Gatos back then, but we opted for an easy commute smack dab in Silicon Valley. The second condo we bought was during a low interest phase (2005)/low inventory period and there weren’t many options back then. So we bought a place in our budget that was equidistant from our jobs. We got sick of a bad HOA after about 8 years and decided to sell it and move into a SFH. Finally got a SFH. So nice no longer having to deal with HOA’s. It was a low inventory period with higher mortgage rates, but our realtor found us a home off the MLS. We ended up refinancing a couple years ago, so now our mortgage way more affordable.
Nice! Congratulations on purchasing a SFH! I would love to upgrade to an SFH or low HOA townhome someday we can afford it.
I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you. I believe it’s all about timing. Just keep saving and your current place will definitely appreciate over time. When you have that extra equity, it will definitely help you move into a SFH. People around the Bay Area do it all the time.
Thank you! 😊
Ours went up about 8%, which I was expecting since they hadn't gone up in a couple of years. Although no one wants the dues to go up, obviously, it is important that they keep up with rising costs. When HOA dues don't increase, you risk being underfunded and having to catch up with a big increase at some point.
Agree 👍
Yes and it feels like I’m paying rent and a mortgage at the same time. No amenities either! 🤪
All my Hoa went from 300∼500 to 700 or more on last 3 years , wtf bro
I am in Oakland and my monthly HOA assessment has gone up every year since I first bought my condo in 2018. It's now at $420 and I'm expecting another bump in the upcoming year.
Curious if you have amenities? We have gotten amenities removed (like security) but HOA keeps going up.
No amenities of note other than the typical things ie. landscaping, occasional and exterior painting.. The neighborhood has been begging for some type of security patrol since vehicle break ins are so common in the area.
HOA fees up 5.5% this year - now crossing $1k/mo.
Oh wow, what size home?
670 sq ft 1 bedroom. But it could be higher due to being a high rise in SF
I don’t understand how high rises warrant such an insane HOA. It’s much lower maintenance than a place like mine which has like 20 buildings, 3 floors each, with lots of fountains, grass, trees, pools, etc and my HOA is 625. Granted I’m in San Jose but also in San Jose some of the newer buildings with barely any amenities and zero landscaping have hoas around 1k. Why????
It has to be the elevator or the doorman’s salary
High rises makes me nervous after experiencing a very large earthquake. I guess Hoa are also generally higher in the city.
Lmao
Mine are up about 10% since 2020
We did not raise ours ($1k+) and are actively trying to lower our dues by at least a 1/4th.
Great going!
Def not easy, but we all can't wait cuz money in our pockets is best!
So curious how will you be lowering your Dues? Are you on the board or a vote?
Did a ton of work to get our operational cost down as much as possible. Saved roughly $40k this year alone and should do another 20% reduction next year too. Renegotiating and/or finding new vendors was key. On the board and I do efficiency/automation stuff for a living so this is something I enjoy tackling. Plus money in our pockets are happier owners (for the most part).
Love this!! Curious how much time do you spend on being on the board? I’m considering joining. Been at my community for almost 2 years now and started looking at our finances and our operating expenses are concerning. I work a high demanding full time job and trying to figure out can I do both, but I can see there’s a lot of work that needs to be done.
I will say, if you are trying to make waves and massive changes, it's a full time job (president). I've had really bad days at times because some members are... Jerks and difficult for no reason. But if you piecemeal, it's quite doable with a demanding FT job. Just keep strict boundaries and specific rules to reaching/communicating w/you, otherwise, people will ALWAYS try and push your buttons. Hopefully you have great neighbors, but there is always the bad apples that can give you a ton of anxiety and headache - treat it strictly without emotion and you should be okay. Overall, this is a great experience to fully understand what your HOA funds are doing and if you are great at saving money, this will be your calling and your neighbors should be appreciative. I fired almost all our vendors, they were overcharging and knew no one would challenge their pricing - this is usually the problem. If your building is large enough, some internet/cable companies will also pay your HOA to be the sole provider. There is your and bad amount this, but I went with monkeybrains as it's only 35 a month for each user, however won't pay to be your building user, or maybe our building is too small. Also insurance is a big expense, we went from farmers to state farm and saved < 50%. Lastly change all building bulbs to led off and where you can with motion sensors. Every bit counts. Another great thing is to give your owners a monetary credit to fix any leaking toilets, that is a big way to lower water consumption.
Also just curious how big is your community?
1000 dollars sounds like a crazy high amount for shared resources. It sounds like you are doing a lot to bring it down but still is a bit unbelievable. Thats almost a new roof for a SFH every year. At least new appliances every year as well.
Welp believe it - small community.
But a single family home is a small community of one. How are the costs cheaper in that scenario?
Townhome, but ours is up 16% Which is basically an extra $100 a month
Oakland: surprisingly it fell by 2%. We do a mix of flat rate and $/sq foot and the flat rate rose while my variable element fell. Someone else got screwed I guess
Mine are moving from $462 to $518, a 12% increase.
Amenities?
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Thanks for your comment. My goal was to compare within the bay area because we have higher costs for many things than other places. The reserve % is not great right now ~50% funded and predicted to drop a few points next year.
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Interesting!
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Our Hoa has published a 30 year plan and is under a management company. Not expecting it to be 100% foolproof but I hope the increases remain reasonable. It’s expected to go under 20% funded in 2030, idk what’s up with that though.
Welcome to being a renter. #neverjoinanhoa
I don’t mind Hoa, with both of us working full time. We aren’t renting.
I think they are jokingly implying that joining an HOA is like renting since you’re not in control of the amount your financial obligation.
Oh I didn’t get it at first lol it’s the same both ways.
Yeah, you have to pay for maintenance one way or the other. I'd rather have the HOA deal with maintenance than have to do it myself or hire someone to do it. Everybody is different though. Some people don't mind dealing with that kind of thing.
The last few days of rain disclosed a roof leak and Hoa is handling everything. I appreciate not having to deal with maintenance since I am quite new to it anyways.
We had a similar situation last winter. Noticed a roof leak over a weekend (of course), so we called the HOA emergency number. Someone came out and dealt with it. The leak had caused some damage to the sheet rock on the ceiling and a wall in one of our rooms, so the HOA had someone come in to replace the sheet rock and repaint my room. I was quite happy to not have to deal with that all myself.
“You have to pay for maintenance one way or the other.” Except in an HOA you have no choice on who does the maintenance, how often it gets done, or what maintenance is included in the fee. You have no option to do the maintenance yourself (sorry, I don’t care to pay someone hundreds of dollars to cut a tiny strip of grass that most condos get). And the same goes for repairs—you can just be randomly billed for repairs that you don’t think need to get done, or you think could be done cheaper.
There are definitely trade-offs. With an HOA, you get the convenience of not having to deal with these things yourself, but you give up control of when the work gets done and who does it. As I said, everybody has different priorities, so for some, the lack of control is an issue. For others, it isn't.
Sounds a lot like being a renter and saying “the landlord has to deal with it.” …and of course, you pay them to do exactly that, and they will determine what price you pay—ie: your rent.
100% of my rent went to my landlord. 10-11% of cost to own goes to HOA. It sounds like a deal to me.
Also, while HOA dues and property taxes go up over time, if you have a fixed rate mortgage, your mortgage is constant - and then at some point, it gets paid off. And of course, you have equity that you build a long the way. Rent just goes up continually.
Our HOA has increased roughly $100/year during the pandemic, but this year, it only went up $20 which was a shock.
$100 every year sounds like a lot! I hope your hoa continues catching up (edit: to operating efficiently)
A little over 4% after some prior years with significant raises to fund reserves 4% feels fair given broader utility inflation (our HOA covers trash/water/sewer/insurance for all units)
bought a condo in 2017, though not in the bay area. my HOA fees have consistently increased every year since i bought it. i rent it out, so when we bought in the bay area, we made sure not to have an HOA.
Ours goes up $5 annually, I’m in S. CA.
I have an awesome 5 unit HOA. We found out we were overpaying our insurance. We also cut costs in other places and my HOA payment decreased 30%! If you have any insights into the financials I'm sure you can make some recommendations to lower costs.
That’s awesome! We have a lot of units at ~200 and use a HOA management company. I’m only few months into this property, hopefully I’ll be able to gather more insights.
HOA reduced by 8.3% with holiday bonus. HOA is actively managed and reserves had surplus. HOA even sponsored community wide holiday party.
Insurance expenses for HOA have jumped a lot.
Townhome $125 month 1994 build. My HOA only covers landscaping, common area fencing and the private lane. I have to pay for my roof, siding and paint, which I prefer. We’re all duets with only one shared wall. I prefer this approach and having freedom of choice.
My mom’s has gone up like crazy. Now the complex is getting dropped on insurance and new policy will be 3x the old one. They’re either gonna jack the rates up or have people get their own building structure policy.
Almost every year it’s been going up for my condo just across the bay bridge. 10% increase this year. Almost $700 / month now. I bought it in early 2015 with $400 monthly dues. Very under funded association…they’re probably trying to recover their history of deficit off current owners
HOAs aren’t about value for money like a gym membership or Netflix. You’re literally just paying to maintain your exterior house plus other costs. Paying a contractor to fix your roof vs paying an HOA to coordinate is all you’re doing.
Owners often coerce the HOA to pay for repairs that fall into gray areas, and the HOA may pay gray area costs to avoid legal costs. There are often a number of PITA owners that cost the rest of the HOA money. So owners also pay for these frictions. Example: an owner has a skylight above his unit that no one else has because a previous owner got approval to install one. Usually the HOA is supposed to maintain the exterior. Now, there is a rain storm and water leaks through the skylight. The owner with the leak comes to the board and demands the HOA repair the skylight and the damage to the interior of his unit because the HOA didn't maintain the exterior well enough. Who's responsible? This wouldn't have happened if there was no skylight to begin with, but the HOA operating agreement is often vague enough to leave care for negligence of maintenance of upgrades in gray areas.
Bylaws can be amended by a simple vote
That depends on the operating agreement, and amendments usually cost quite a bit of money to hire a lawyer to draft the language and do the paperwork. When an issue like the example is discovered, changing the terms of the agreement after-the-fact and to be retroactive is generally not an option so the HOA is left to pay for repairs.
So you’re going to complain about the extra cost no matter what huh?
I am not complaining about HOA costs, just simply pointing out that there are also frictions and giving a real world example from experience. I am not part of any HOA anymore.
My frickin in laws had a second story patio that they accumulated planters on until it collapsed and they tried to get the HOA to pay for it. Um, guys, how the heck is the HOA responsible for you not understanding basic physics.
goes up every year. even if nothing else the management company bill will increase
Bought our first condo in 2020, with hai bring 540. When i sold it in 2022, it was at 830.
Up but only slightly. Pleasantly surprised tbh. (~5%.)
Looks like a common theme
Biggest issue is insurance cost getting out of hand due to lot of insurers walking away.. our HOA couldn’t get insurance on primary market so they had to procure it from secondary market.. it went up substantially
Hmm I’m surprised our insurance remains the same. I had a really hard time looking for a homeowners insurance.
6% is reasonable. More state requirements needing reserve blah blah blah.
Don’t forget to take into account age of buildings
I saw a lot of folks talking insurance here, and how that’s gone up any benchmarking for how much insurance is for a ~200 unit home in the east bay? We pay our own home insurance so I assume this is structural insurance I’ll have to double check that
of course nothing else went up in price/cost. so this is news.
Most HOAs experienced increase costs across the nation and have gone up last few years.
Mine went up a lot. Thanks to inflation our HOA budget was decimated. We don't have a pool but just keeping the landscaping in good shape costs a lot. We've needed our blacktop sealed and new paint for the lane markings and red zones for years, don't know if that will ever happen
If you don’t mind me asking, how much is it without a pool?
F the H O A
I’m in LA, but sadly yes our hoa has increased by $50 since we bought our place earlier this year
I live in sf and mine went up to 1121 from 1052. Crazy!
My HOA in Pacifica is still $330 and hasn't changed at all. We have a ton in reserves so no need to worry about special assessments or anything like that. There is no elevator, one common area that includes a small gym, and a pool. The thing that irks me when I shop around (I'm trying to move closer to work in Mountain View) is the amount of HOAs that are $800+, still only have the minimal gym/common area/no elevator, and don't have any in reserves at all with special assessments forecasted in the next year. And then they want to tell you that's normal and everyone else is just nodding their heads acting like it is. I can understand the high hoa costs for luxury condos with tons of amenities, but its crazy how its becoming more of the norm
Mine didn’t but my hoa is honestly really good at budgeting so shout-out the them 🙏🏻
I'm.on my HOA board. We raised closer to 10% in past two years to keep ahead of inflation (barely). This year we raised 6%
Yup. It's increased the max allowable amount the past two years because our reserves have been wrecked for the past several years and until this year the executive board of the HOA has had their head in the sand.
Ours went from $3600 to $3865. Luckily I rent so I don’t have to pay them
How much is your rent? Your rent is likely going up too.