Quote Originally Posted by Drilldov2.0 View Post
Holy shit, am I the only one who has a problem with that? Bsically that exempts the local govt. from doing what they are supposed to do and allows a private party to levy a tax against the citizens of their community (private homeowners) without any oversight?
It gets worse.

My wife and I spent over a year house hunting and despite the fact that it was a buyers market we had a tough time finding what we wanted. We were within inches of building a new home in the Wheatlands subdivision (SE Aurora/Centennial) until we found out that they had two HOA's. There is a community HOA (private) and a metro HOA (city). When all is said and done you are paying $85 a month in HOA dues for what they claim to be maintenance of all of the wonderful facilities offered to the residents; a pool is not one of those facilities.

As if the HOA due's aren't bad enough check into the property taxes of newly built subdivisions. City and county government's now allow builders to take bonds out to pay for the roads, street lights and etc. the bonds end up as levies in the form of property taxes. When you buy a new home you assume that the cost of all of the roads and etc. were built into the cost of the home but that is wrong and the sales guy at the new home office will tell you that property tax is 1% which is an out and out lie. New homes now run close to 2%+ for property tax alone. If you purchase a $300K home expect to pay close to $6K in property tax and $85 a month in HOA's. None of that property tax money or HOA money will be recovered when you go to resale your home.