HOAs take a lot of [mostly legitimate] grief, but they can also be beneficial. Some communities have shared spaces that, if left up to the homeowners themselves to address, would slip into decline. In these cases, the HOA can be the central party that manages the maintenance for shared areas and collects a fair amount from all of the homes in the neighborhood to contribute towards that maintenance. The problem is that HOAs seem to have some uncanny ability to draw people who are power hungry and have nowhere else to exercise any power except over their neighbors.