I’ll have to ask my dad what he pays in HOA fees. He bought one of the co-ops a few years ago for around $90k for a ground floor 2 BR with patio. If you’re seriously thinking about Laguna Woods, do what he did: rent a place for a few months and see if you like it. There are LOTS of units available for rent. I think there is a restriction on how many days per year a unit can be rented out, but there seems to be lots of rentals available. So try it out, avail yourself of all the amenities, and see if you like it. I think folks generally love the place or hate it.
On the plus side: they take very good care of the facilities, there’s a woodshop, darkroom, swimming pools, and more bridge games than you can shake a stick at. They seem to have a full-time gardening staff, as they’re always out mowing, trimming, replanting stuff, etc.
On the downside, it’s the most busybody HOA I’ve ever seen. His neighbor bought a unit and after she moved in got a terse note from the HOA that the front door had been painted a non-compliant color. It was that way when she bought the place, and you can’t even see the door from the street. When I visit I need to show a pass to get in, and if I want to stay overnight, I have to stop at the guard shack, they have to call my dad to approve my visit, and they get out a clipboard and take down my name and license plate and issue me an overnight pass. This is new in the past few months and it’s a pain in the ass. The HOA and management seem really out of touch and arrogant. My dad has a busybody neighbor who left him a note complaining about my mom’s unsightly perfume bottles on the bathroom window ledge. Keep in mind, this is a frosted glass window so all you can see from the outside are amorphous blobs AND as viewed from the driveway this window is sorta behind the dumpster corral. It just boggles the mind who would complain about such a thing. I told my dad we should have some fun and make a middle finger out of cardboard and put behind the blurry glass but he declined my offer to make one. But by and large his neighbors are quite nice.
