[davidw]

HOA's pale in comparison to zoning in the US.

Zoning is what prevents dense development, mixed development and all the other kinds of development we used to do in the US (not just Europe).

Here's a small example from Bend, where I live:

https://bendyimby.com/2018/01/06/1947/

[pc2g4d]

Zoning is currently being used to squeeze single people out of my town. It should be illegal, but it isn't.

[shawnee_]

The obvious thing you are missing is that it is developers who want to build rent-producing "income HOAs" ... they are the driver creating the problem. Who else would be lobbying for the kinds of restrictive zoning that creates these problems?

[davidw]

If it were just developers, there wouldn't be the political constituency for it. Also, developers make money whatever kind of market-rate construction they're doing, in a decent market.

If you're interested in the subject, some good takes on it are the books I list here (Zoned in the USA and Zoning Rules!):

https://bendyimby.com/2017/06/12/yimby-reading/

Or, if you want to get a very real sense, the next time some apartments get proposed in your town, go to the public hearings and listen to the neighbors rant, rave, froth at the mouth and otherwise raise a hue and cry that life as they know it will not go on if the poor peop...errr, I mean apartments get built anywhere near them.