« A Very Good Manager | Main | Why does everything have to go in the front yard? »
April 28, 2006
Why do all the new developments have an association?
In every discussion site and very often in the media, I see people saying that they can't find a new home that isn't in an association. They can't understand why the market doesn't respond to their wishes. There's an easy answer, but not an easy fix. It would probably mean that your property taxes would go up.
In the late '80's and early '90's, a movement started to cap or reduce property taxes. Local governments, which relied heavily on property taxes for a major part of their revenue found themselves having to cut costs to get by. In the meantime developers were finding that prime land was becoming encumbered by density restriction and new legislation regarding wetlands and brownfields. In other words, they might find a 5 acre piece of property, but under zoning they could only put 1 home per half acre and 2 of the acres could be wetlands. So instead of 10 homes, they could only build 6. So they tried to to get a variance to build to a greater density on the remaining 3 acres. And they would offer (or be required to) create an association to govern the common property (wetlands) and to take on some of the servies normally provided by the local government.
The upside for the developer, greater density = greater profit. The upside for the local government, more taxpayers, but fewer services, therefore, a net income that could be used to offset rising costs, or to prevent the reduction of services to other taxpayers (voters). A win-win for both parties. As long as local governments can't raise taxes to the levels they need in order to provide similar services to all resident, you will see nothing but associations being built.
So its a relatively easy choice, let your legislator know whether you'd prefer more association or more taxes.
Posted by joewest at April 28, 2006 12:54 PM