Survey shows Floridians like their HOAs and condo associations

Rendering of Jordan Park Redevelopment. Image via St. Petersburg Housing Authority.

Homeowners associations and community condominium boards can be highly influential in Florida with their covenants and residential stipulations. They can influence city councils and county commissions and often can be contentious with their own residents. That’s why the Tyson Group National Research Firm has conducted a unique survey of people who live under the guidance of HOA’s and condo boards in the Sunshine State.

Tyson Group researchers found that many residents who live under the bylaws and stipulations in those community boards generally like the panels and their guidelines. However, those same residents say they’re conflicted about community associations and see them as part of the reason housing costs are skyrocketing.

“Despite the broad-based rising costs of homeownership, Floridians are positive about living in their community associations,” said Derek Falcon, of the Tallahassee-based Tyson Group. “However, Florida homeowners place much of the blame for those rising costs on overregulation from state lawmakers —  and this will inform how they will vote in November.”

Tyson Group conducted online surveys with about 550 self-identified community association members July 24 through July 26. Some 69% of the participants were HOA members, another 15% were members of condo associations and 16% were members of both, meaning they had rental properties in both kinds of developments.

Out of the sampling, 65% said they’re satisfied with their community association governing bodies. Another 59% said they felt those community associations were worth the extra community fees assessed by their developments with the majority of those being surveyed paying between $99 to $499 per month for association fees.

Out of those surveyed, 68% said they felt those monthly fees and rules laid down by community associations increased the quality of life in their housing developments.

However, housing costs keep going up and an 86% majority of participants in the survey say those rising costs are out of control. Within that sampling, 29% of those surveyed blame those rising costs on governmental regulation. Another 25% blame insurance companies and 19% blame residential development companies.

“This should be a wake up call for lawmakers, said Mark Anderson, executive director for Chief Executive Officers of Management Companies (CEOMC), an industry trade group that manages community associations of more than 6.5 million Floridians. “This poll shows that Floridians like their Condos and HOAs, dislike overregulation that has increased their cost of living and will vote for candidates in November who agree with them.  The simple solution is for lawmakers to listen to homeowners, keep what works, and discard impractical, overbearing laws.”