zlacker

Because developers sell to people who like "new houses" and to make those more desirable they add a HOA that says that you're safe buying your house because the HOA prevents others from changing their houses to look different from the pristine perfection that is the American Suburb.

Or it's a condominium development and you need a HOA to deal with the roof and other shared maintenance issues, and things get tacked on.

It is painfully easy to avoid a HOA if you don't want one, but once they exist they stick with the house for basically forever.

And the underlying aspect remains, which is keep poor people out (often explicitly racist, mind you): https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/ugly-legacy-latino-coupl...

Even though not enforceable, they often remain and people still sign them. https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3ppgw/californians-can-now-...