By far the nicest neighborhood in town is ours, the one with no HOA. We have the most sports fields and courts, playgrounds, trails, dog parks, skate park, etc. No HOA, so we don't hoard, all facilities are shared to all. But across the street for us, making it a nice neighborhood.
Also, we have no HOA, so there are no ridiculous restrictions, which means the neighborhood has character. Every house is painted in unique colorful styles, instead of endless shades of dull beige. Every house has unique vegetation choices based on owner preferences so it is fun to walk around and sightsee. We have no HOA, so there are zero restrictions on decorations, so we are the Halloween capital of the county (coming up in a few weeks!)
It's a vibrant unique neighborhood full of facilities and character, precisely because there is no HOA to destroy it.
A similar neighborhood across town (we're a small town so across town is just a mile away) has a HOA, every house is a dull shade of beige and they have very harsh rules, like HOAs of course do, on decorations, so Halloween and Christmas are DOA over there.
You are exactly the kind of neighborhood that is my nightmare. What you claim are fun Halloween and Christmas decorations I’m sure are way too intrusive to others living next to you (I have seen things like Halloween blow up things that are running the motors 24/7 and even play sounds), excessive Christmas lighting that never gets turned off and so you have to live permanently with all of your blinds closed. To make matters worse, a lot of people start Halloween on Sep 1 and Christmas decorations even before Thanksgiving is over. So you have to live through that for 4 months not just like a 2 week period. I’d definitely pick to live in the other HOA neighborhood you describe.
Luckily there are tons of HOA neighborhood where everything is gray or beige and all character and fun is strictly prohibited, patrolled by the Karen army of the HOA. So you have plenty of choices.
Unfortunately there are nowhere near enough choices for people who want a bit more joy out of their neighborhood than that.
Also, we have no HOA, so there are no ridiculous restrictions, which means the neighborhood has character. Every house is painted in unique colorful styles, instead of endless shades of dull beige. Every house has unique vegetation choices based on owner preferences so it is fun to walk around and sightsee. We have no HOA, so there are zero restrictions on decorations, so we are the Halloween capital of the county (coming up in a few weeks!)
It's a vibrant unique neighborhood full of facilities and character, precisely because there is no HOA to destroy it.
A similar neighborhood across town (we're a small town so across town is just a mile away) has a HOA, every house is a dull shade of beige and they have very harsh rules, like HOAs of course do, on decorations, so Halloween and Christmas are DOA over there.