My point above was that HOAs can affect people who don't choose to live in one. I have no problem with HOAs if the people living there are happy with the rules. But some HOAs take it beyond reasonable.
The homeowners who repainted their house the same color and were then fined and taken to court for violating the CCRs - even though the prior owner had violated the same rule and the house was not required to be painted an "acceptable" color when it was selling. Come to find out, the president of the HOA had a personal dislike of the "new" homeowner (who had lived in the yellow house with no notification that it was against rules for 10 years) and decided to make his life miserable.
Or having homeowners use the streets outside their control for parking so they can keep their "area" pretty.
HOAs are fine for those who like them, but when they infringe on the lives outside of their control, they deserve the bad rap.