&gt;That&#x27;s disingenuous to pretend its not compulsory, just don&#x27;t buy the house! We all understand it to mean, to live in a certain area its compulsory to belong to the HOA.<p>What you are saying is the equivalent of &quot;I don&#x27;t like wearing a shirt. Walmart wants to compel me to wear a shirt to go in their store and it&#x27;s a flagrant un-freedom and un-American policy&quot;.<p>Similar to buying a home in an established HOA, when you buy certain pieces of software, or use countless websites, you agree to their Terms of Service. There is no compulsion involved because you make the decision on whether to limit yourself. Everyone who chooses to do so, does it because they believe they will be better off engaging in the agreement than not.<p>&gt;Buying a house is a contract between the seller and the buyer regarding personal property. To be required to include a third party (the HOA) is strange.<p>There&#x27;s nothing strange about it at all. When you buy a house you have to ensure the seller has clear claim to the title. You have to make sure there are not any liens on the property. Is that strange to involve those third parties? Hardly.<p>When an HOA is formed, those in the neighborhood contractually agree to do certain things and not do other things. They do so of their own accord. They also agree that the HOA has a claim on the house so that when sold, the contract remains in force. Do you disagree with the concept of contracts?