We looked at a house yesterday in a development. I've never lived in a neighborhood like that, and I'm not sure if I'd like it. There is an HOA, but I found the bylaws, and there's nothing crazy. I kind of like the idea of dss and dd having neighborhood kids to play with. This particular house backs to a horse farm, so that gives a little more privacy than backing to other houses.
Post by wildfloweragain on Aug 6, 2016 6:22:36 GMT -5
I did in high school and I liked it but didn't want a cookie cutter house when I bought my own. It was nice to have friends' houses I could walk to, and I could walk to tons of places to babysit. It was sort of weird that all the houses like mine or the reverse layout inside.
Now I don't have a huge preference either way. H still won't live in a development because he thinks they tend to cut a lot of corners on building.
I live in one now. There are covenants, but no HOA, fees, or community amenities. It's basically a regular neighborhood with similar houses. I think the builder did a decent job mixing up finishes and floor plans. Developments are pretty much the only option in the area of town where we wanted to live. I grew up in the sticks and really love having neighbors.
There are pros and cons. After 11 years in our development my DH wants out and his own space.
Pros: pretty, uniform look to our neighborhood, no crazy looking homes or dumps or driveways with broken down cars, everyone upkeeps their curb appeal and lawns, lots of kids (which also might be a con), schools nearby, safe, amenities (not in mine now but my last development had a playground and little park), neighbors look after each other, good location to main street and stores, lack of isolation/feeling part of a community
Cons: HOA fees, HOA limitations (also a pro for the first pro above but for us we have a landscaping business and they cited us when DH had a trailer in the driveway for a few days), neighbors are close so not much privacy, lack of having a lot of your own space (DH wants acreage), drivers way too fast in a neighborhood with lots of kids, nosy and noisy/disrespectful neighbors
I think it depends on the neighborhood too. I wonder sometimes if we move out of a development if I'll feel isolated.
I grew up in a suburb of NYC so I always figured I would live in a similar style neighborhood but we moved away and are now in a development of sorts. All the houses are different looking and there's lots of trees which was huge to me. The HOA fees are not bad at all and it is nice that they keep the neighborhood looking nice. It's not exactly my style but it's a nice place to live.
I did. We moved because of the commute but I otherwise enjoyed it for the most part.
The HOA was kind of a pain in the ass when we put in a new fence. permits and plans had to be submitted, which kept being rejected bc the stain wasn't on the approved list so samples GD to be submitted with pictures, lol. They ended up rejecting the back of the fence because we weren't putting in approved wrought iron but we finally said fuck it because it's what all of our neighbors had.
That said, I did feel a sense of community, even though it was a massive development. I liked the parties they threw and activities for kids. We lived on a cul de sac and all of the kids on the street played outside every night.
I grew up in one. It was pretty relaxed (no HOA). My parents were the fourth one to build their house, and eventually about 60 houses were built. Growing up, I loved it. Safe place to ride bikes, lots of friends. I spent my summers outside just running from yard to yard.
We live in a small development of only 20 houses. It's not quite the same, but I do like it. Houses are on 1-4 acre lots so we are spread out. No HOA again, but there are some (reasonable) deed restrictions.
We live in one. Our HOA is fine, nothing crazy. I think our fees are $500 ish a year. We have a pool, several parks, basketball and tennis courts, a large pond and greenbelt area and they are putting in a splash pad. I feel like we get a lot for what we pay for.
I like that the neighborhood always look kept up, and there isn't anything crazy (purple houses, etc). It is kind of a PITA to get things approved (front door color, fence stain, outside trim color, etc).
I LOVE the social aspect though. We are super close to our neighbors and M plays outside with their kids often. Weekly when it's this hot but fall/spring she is out there daily with them. Our neighborhood does parties for the kids, they bring in the most amazing Santa (same one the past few years) and live reindeer, we have concerts in the park, Halloween parties, a daddy/daughter dance, etc.
Our community is about 150 homes- so not massive compared to other ones out here. I really love it
There are pros and cons. We have amazing neighbors, and like the community feel. Lots of young kids, and older kids to babysit. Our neighborhood looks really nice and most people take pride in their home and landscaping. Some people are jerks though, and there isn't a ton of privacy if that's your thing. Small lots, but they cost less to maintain.
I live in one. It wouldn't be my first choice, but it's pretty typical.
HOA fees are about $500 a year for a single or TH, more for condos who get more in the way of landscaping services. We have sports fields and courts, a pool, rec center and nicely maintained common grounds. There are rules against commercial vehicles, letting your lawn go to shit, metal playsets, above ground pools, etc. But nothing onerous for me aside from rules against hanging laundry to dry.
My neighbors are pretty quiet and reasonably respectful aside from the shithead next door. Houses are a mix of styles and builders.
My old neighborhood did not have a HOA; it was a bit like the wild, wild west there.
Post by thatgirl2478 on Aug 6, 2016 8:56:53 GMT -5
I do now. There are covenants, but no HOA, fees, or community amenities. However, none of the houses look alike - they didn't require a specific builder for the project.
I don't know if I like it. I like the neighborhood, I like the house, I like the land, I like our neighbors, but I hate that there are rules saying what we can/can't do on our property. I wouldn't mind if it were just things like not letting junk accumulate or keeping your grass reasonable, but they have made fences & sheds 'against the rules' - which I find ridiculous.
We're also in a covenants community vs HOA. I really love where we live. It's a great location, great neighbors. DS has a few friends in the neighborhood.
BUT regardless of what you call it- moving into a new neighborhood, you never know what you're going to get. There was a post around here not too long ago about this - but some neighborhoods will be made up of social people and do tons of neighborhood events and it's really a "community", where as other neighborhoods will be made of of people who tend to keep to themselves.
We're in a neighborhood that's somewhere in between. Lots of great people and young kids. We all do stuff occasionally - but that's falling off because of drama with our board President and his wife. The kids- they'll sometimes play outside together but it's not like you'll drive through the neighborhood and see tons of kids all running around together. Everyone here is really busy with outside stuff and we aren't all sitting around on our front lawns while our kdis run around together.
A friend lives in a neighboring neighborhood and the above happens even less there than it does here.
So.... Development/neighborhood, or whatever - there will always be a bit of a crapshoot as to what you get.
We have for the past 6+ years. It's ok. If/when we ever move, I would like to NOT live in one just because of HOA, but to be honest ours isn't awful. We just got a new HOA company in April and the previous one really didn't do much so now when this one is actually doing their job, people (including me for a bit) were freaking out. Our dues aren't that high ($325/year) but we also don't have a pool in our community.
As for cookie cutter - our development started in about 2001-2, our house was built in 2002. There are a few others within 2 blocks with the same floor plan. They just started expanding our development with a new builder about a year and a half ago and all the new homes are bigger with different floor plans and I can definitely see a difference between the "new" residents of the 'hood compared to those of us who have either lived here a while or are in older homes in conversations on our FB page.
I guess I'm mostly asking about having neighbors so close, on .25/.5 acre lots.
This is so personal, though. I grew up in a row house, for one. Past that, I don't need LAND and SPACE. I posted in another post earlier where I said I'll never be a rural person. I want to be near people and amenities. I want to be able to let DS walk around the corner on his own to his best friend's house.
We have about a 1/3 of an acre. It's perfectly fine. We have a nice fenced in back yard that gives us some privacy. It's an overall quite neighborhood but we have nice neighbors who look out for one another and we've made some good friends. Just this past week- we asked one neighbor to take our mail in for us. I didn't think about our trash or recycling. Another neighbor saw that we were away and went ahead and put both out for us. I like knowing that people are keeping an eye out for us.
This is perfect for me. Doesn't mean it would be perfect for you. .
I would caution you to not count on the horse farm staying a farm. It's likely to be devolped in the future. Would you still like the lot if another house was there?
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Our past two homes have been in established small developments, both dating back to the mid or early 80s. I hated the first one mostly because we couldn't fence. The fees were $750 a year, but there were two pools that were often totally empty except for us and the lifeguard when we went, and tennis courts.
The one we live in now has almost no services, fewer rules and no amenities, except communal green space. I'm not even sure why it exists, except that it is rare for homes in the St. Louis suburbs to not have been developed by builders this way.
ETA: Oh, and weirdly, our first development did back to a horse farm, LOL. It was fun.
We live in one. In California, you're always that close to your neighbors, regardless of an HOA
In any case, it's fine. Small things are a pain in the ass. Like ANY time you change your yard you have to submit your plan. So our front yard is bare and looks pretty bad right now, but we have a whole plan of things we want to do, so we don't want to submit 4 plans with the $150 fee. Dumb.
We don't go to HOA meetings, although our neighbors do and report back. In an HOA sometimes there's crazy people, like there's one woman who INSISTS people are racing down the road and wants to install speedbumps. We are also on Facebook pages for our street and community and those are sometimes amusing.
Our neighbors are fine. Based on some of the annoying people in the HOA, we lucked out there. LOL.
I live in one and love it. We pay our HOA $900/year but that includes lawn service got the entire year. We only have to maintain bushes/trees. I wish there was a community pool. I would probably be willing to pay double for that.
I am living in the land of community "cookie cutter" homes. I've never understood the hate or strong dislike for them. I realize some people like other styles, need more land, etc. But it's not like they're the worst thing ever.
Oh, we do have a community pool and there are community events. We've never gone to one, they're pretty much geared towards families. But we bought in a development because we wanted to buy a new house, and this was the way to do so in a somewhat affordable fashion.
I live in one now. There are covenants, but no HOA, fees, or community amenities. It's basically a regular neighborhood with similar houses. I think the builder did a decent job mixing up finishes and floor plans. Developments are pretty much the only option in the area of town where we wanted to live.
This pretty much describes our development. We've been happy here the past three years. We're friendly with our neighbors, but there aren't any community events or such, which is fine for us.
We live in a cul-de-sac of about 25 houses developed by 5 different builders in early 2000s, but no HOA or anything. Having neighbor friends is cool because we can walk to each others houses and drink. :-P We also have folks to keep an eye on our house and cat while we're away. We went through a crapton of drama with the house next door that finally foreclosed (dealing drugs out of his house). I'm sure that is not the norm though. You just never know who your neighbors will be though!
As a PP mentioned, I used to live in a rural area, so like having folks around and being near a grocery store.
Post by adhdfashion on Aug 6, 2016 11:26:34 GMT -5
We live in one now. There is an HOA and mostly they just keep up the lake, and other amenities. They throw a few parties a year and host the lake day games. Ours is super laid back and you would have to do something crazy to get a notice. No real cons in my book. I like it.
We lived in one for 6 years and moved out in November. I absolutely loved my house, it was new and pretty, with awesome upgrades, but I hated the neighborhood. You must note, though, that we do not have kids. The folks who did love the neighborhood all had kids who liked being outside and playing with other kids, going to the neighborhood pool together, etc. The houses were one on top of each other (1/8 acre each), it was always noisy, dogs barking, basketballs bouncing, kids screaming, etc. I like peace and quiet, and we keep to ourselves, so we moved to a house on over an acre, in an older neighborhood (20 years old), there are hardly any kids here, so we love it.
ETA: However, the downside to buying an older house means $$$$ for renovations. lol
I live in one. We have HOA of $125 a year. It pays for the landscaping and maintenance of our 3 entrances year round (seasonal decorating/flowers/electricity for lighting, water for sprinkling system). It also pays for a printed and e-roster of everyone, we have a yard of the month during the summer, a cocoa & Santa party in the gazebo in our park, a summer cook-out/pool party. Our development is pretty large.
We do have covenants such as limits on the types of fences (no stockade style fences) but for the most part the "rules" all do make sense and they don't beat people up about things.
I think I would like a development for the community but I also like older homes and being close to city center. I am not a burbs person. And the only developments in the location that would be accetable to me are like 500k. Wah
Post by fivechickens on Aug 6, 2016 17:59:15 GMT -5
We live in one and I really like it. The houses look very similar but that has never bothered me. I grew up in neighborhood with houses built in 1938 that looked exactly like everyone else's.
Our HOA is about $400 a year. Our sub is very laid back no major issues or ridiclous expectations. Our lots are nice sizes too which is nice because most around us have tiny lots.
I own some condos(townhouse style) in a development which has an HOA, etc. not a fan of that aspect. They raised the monthly fee on us 25% last year, the management company sucks, etc. it seems really difficult to get answers. I don't live there and they were cheap so it's not a huge deal but it's not something I value. Otherwise I've always lived in a regular city (older) neighborhood...any issues I've had, the city govt is responsive (just call 411 here). I pay no extra, have cheap property taxes but we get perks like free admission for the kids at all pools/rec centers, tons of events, etc.