A home for sale. Photo: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images
For many homebuyers,HOA fees are another financial hurdle in an already tough market.
The big picture: In Austin, 72% of homes listed for sale on Realtor.com last year had HOA fees, compared with 40.5% of those across the country.
The median monthly fee in Austin is $60. Nationally, it's $125.
How it works: HOA dues typically cover maintenance and amenities like pools and gyms, plus other costs that keep a community running.
What they're saying: HOAs can function in ways that echo the effects of redlining before the Fair Housing Act passed, Christine Drennon, an associate professor and expert in urban geography and community development at Trinity University, tells Axios.
"When we start to put these dollar figures on who can live there and what you can do to your house, we are racializing it, even if it's unintentional," she says. "It's racialized just because wealth is racialized."
The other side: The Community Associations Institute (CAI), a national nonprofit that educates and advocates for HOAs, is working to make community governance more inclusive, Jesus Azanza, Round Rock-based executive director of the institute's Houston and San Antonio chapters, tells Axios.
CAI supports laws that let HOAs remove racist language from property records and prevent discrimination against renters based on payment methods.
