What about HOA dues?

Every condo and town home comes with a Home Owner's Association(HOA) that has the responsibility to care for certain aspects of the development. The dues that an HOA charges the condo or town home owners, pay for the expenses that are shared.

Most HOAs cover expenses for these items:

• Monthly water, sewer and trash bills
• Lawn care & sprinkler system maintenance
• Exterior maintenance on the buildings and parking areas
• Snow removal
• Fire and liability insurance on the buildings
  
• Professional management of the association

Additional items(if applicable) that a few HOAs also cover:

• Pool and/or clubhouse maintenance
• Tennis courts
• Cable TV and/or high speed internet
• Heating cost of individual units

HOA dues for the typical items range from $100/month to $185/month. For HOAs covering items in the second list, monthly dues at various associations will range from $150/month to $285/month, depending on what the HOA is providing. Heat and pool/clubhouse costs raise monthly dues the most. The age of the development also affects the monthly dues with older developments generally having higher dues to pay for additional maintenance.

In most cases, HOAs don't like to raise monthly dues very much and we just do not see dramatic jumps in dues. Typical increases range from $5 to 15 per month and usually do not happen every year. HOA boards work very hard to hold their costs down to avoid increases because the board members have to pay the increases, too.

We'll talk about the operations and rules of typical college condo home owner associations in the next few posts, to answer more questions that frequently get asked when considering such an investment.