There is one more factor to consider: the HOA is much more likely to “outsource” basic maintenance that an individual homeowner is. I suspect that HOA expenses are at least 20-30% higher than what an individual homeowner would pay to have done.
If you own your home, you probably think nothing of cleaning your own laundry room, replacing your own light bulbs and batteries in the fire detectors, even raking/blowing your own leaves once a month. An HOA, on the other hand, ends up paying for someone to come and do these things. Since no individual homeowner is responsible for the “commons,” care of the commons is outsourced. This gets expensive.
