>So it really can matter. Not everyone cares for their property, and that certainly can affect the value of yours.

It can also be the exact opposite like my neighborhood.

I live in a really nice neighborhood but only a small part of it is in the HOA. The houses outside the HOA are more desirable and it's actually a major advertising point the real estate agents use. You can't tell the difference between the HOA houses and the non ones.

People vastly overstate the value of an HOA to a neighborhood. Where I live it does nothing for property values and in some cases actually hurts the value a bit. I'm not allowed to remove any trees and people really don't like the risk and mess they cause. The guy across the street from me had over $250k in damages from trees and finally told the HOA to fuck off and removed all of them. If I moved 2 houses down there is no HOA and I could do whatever I want to my property, including removing trees.

I'm sure there are places like you mentioned where it does matter, but if you are in an area with a strong housing market they do absolutely nothing.