Some residents are happy to have a governing body in place to enforce shared values and community standards. A survey of 709 people by Zogby International showed that for every owner-member who rated the overall experience of living in a community association as negative, seven saw it as positive.

But another survey, conducted by a home improvement trade organization vendor, of over 3,000 people found that two-thirds found their HOAs were "annoying" or worse. 25% of those who responded had never lived in an HOA, 19% had been in a "war" with their HOA, and the remaining 56% had never had a conflict or resolved it quickly / considered it no big deal. 54% percent of the respondents said they would rather live with a sloppy neighbor than deal with an HOA. 24% responded positively about an HOA, and 45% responded positively or felt the HOA was a minor nuisance.