We are considering a second home purchase in the Palm Springs area. The top two options for us so far are attached duplex homes in condo communities where the HOA maintains everything. We have never been “country club” people and do not golf, but we are considering a purchase in a nice Rancho Mirage gated development vs a non-gated attached duplex home in a very upscale area of South Palm Springs that has an executive golf course and small clubhouse with a gym. The HOA dues are around $200/month more in the country club community, which is not significant to our monthly spending.
If you’ve lived in a country club development, please share thoughts on the pros and cons. Thank you.
I currently live in a gated community/country club. It's a very large community with about 8,000 lots (most undeveloped) with a 9 hole and 18 hole golf course, clubhouse restaurant, skiing with base lodge and top restaurant/bar, three outdoor pools, a large four pool indoor facility, a community center, an equestrian center, a nice jogging/hiking trail system, fitness center, a lake with beach and full time lifeguards, bocce courts, horseshoes, a hotel, lots of community events, and a few other things I forgot to mention. It's almost like a small town. Dues are very reasonable too ~$900/yr (though due increases our far outpacing inflation thus far). We've been here for about five years.
The good:
-All of the amenities. I've got four kids. Two teenagers, a toddler, and a baby. The amenities get used by us a lot. My daughter is in the pool almost every day year round. My teenagers play basketball, ride horses, or play xbox in the community center.
-The dues. Although the dues have been increasing quite a bit since we've been here, they're still very reasonable for what we get.
-Private roads. I like having private roads without police presence handing out revenue generation slips... err, I mean tickets.
-Nice properties and homes that hold their value.
-Full time security and gated community give you a sense of safety. Obviously nothing is 100% and the guards aren't armed, but its nice to have some peace of mind with this.
The bad:
-The HOA. They have more power than you can comprehend until you've lived in an HOA. What they say goes. If they fine you, you have very little recourse, no matter how silly it is. If you don't pay, they put a lien on your property. You already allowed them to do this when you signed the papers to buy the house.
-The rules. This is a double-edged sword, and really ties into the first point above. It's good because it keeps the community clean and home values high. However, they can get very overbearing to the point of absurdity. And you can't reliably predict how the rules/enforcement will be in the future. It depends on who's running the HOA at the time.
I've never been a golfer or a country club type person. I'm much more of a live in the country, shoot guns in my backyard, make bonfires, ride dirt bikes type of person. So, my perception may be a bit skewed. If I had grown up in country clubs, I may have a different perception. I like some things about living here, but if I wasn't married (with a wife that loves it here), I'd move out of here in a heartbeat. The HOA is just too overbearing, and even though I own my own home, it feels like I'm living under someone else's roof paying rent. And there is the added expense of HOA fees that could otherwise be invested.
Keep in mind, I live here full time. If it was a part time home, a lot of my issues probably wouldn't bother me as much.
