Home Owners Association 2011 Assessment

[jimnjana]

Our HOA quarterly assessment for 2011 is going down by $67. First time ever I've had HOA go down by more than a buck or two.

 

[DangerMouse]

Did they give an explanation as to how they can afford for the fees to go down? I would want to know to be sure they were planning sufficiently for a rainy day.

We gots ours earlier this month and think the fees went up by 4.5%.

 

[Midpack]

Wow, I'm moving to your neighborhood! Our POA charge has gone up or stayed the same for 18 years, our next house won't be in a neighborhood with a POA...

 

[wolf]

OP:

Sounds good, but I'd be concerned.

Have they dropped some insurance coverage?

Have they been "overly optomistic" in planning for future expenses?

Is there a new "board of directors" ?

I have own rental townhouses and condo's for years. The association fee has never gone down.

The fee may remain the same for a couple of years, but then to up.

Don't be underfunded.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[jimnjana]

Did they give an explanation as to how they can afford for the fees to go down? I would want to know to be sure they were planning sufficiently for a rainy day.

We gots ours earlier this month and think the fees went up by 4.5%.

Yes,

Legal expense went down by almost $60k, saving money across the board as contracts have come up for renewal, HOA has negotiated price cuts. Expenses such as electricity and irrigation were cut about 50% simply by reducing number of days the sprinklers will run. Legal expenses were the result of lawsuits primarily from when the HOA was run by developer. They have all been settled now. Reserves are approaching a million.

 

[Lisa99]

Ours is going down as well. While not as large a total dollar figure as OP, ours is going down 12%/month.

Reason was that reserves were at 115% and expenses were continuing to go down for similar reasons as the OP stated.