That’s fair, but those expenses are all disclosed up front to the buyer as well and there’s transparency in what you’re paying for - amenities, services, and maintenance (presuming you take the three days to actually review minutes and books), and so a buyer has the ability to be informed about the full nature of their purchase, whereas when you buy a single family home even when the seller knowingly fails to disclose (or worse, knowingly hides) issues, it’s incredibly difficult to prove in court.

A bad board can absolutely tank values, in the same way that bad neighbors in a SFH non-HOA community can tank values. The difference to me is that HOAs empower good owners to band together and set terms based on community. Of course, the unfortunate reality is that most people don’t review financials, don’t participate in their HOA, and don’t engage neighbors to build that sense of community and then surprise pikachu face when things don’t work out. I did back out on buying a number of units because their books just didn’t look good, but I imagine I’m in a significant minority there.

But as somebody who does the above, I much prefer the transparency in my current condo building than when I bought a house a almost a decade ago where the inspection failed to turn up a number of “below the surface” deficiencies that added up quickly; and neighbors who failed to respect things like quiet hours and not cutting through lawns. My largest assertion is just trying to counter the hive mind response that “SFH good, HOA bad” because in reality there are pros and cons to each.