Over the last several decades, residential America has undergone a radical transformation.  Gone is the concept and practice of the owners enjoying sovereignty over their own homes.  No longer is the local municipal government the closest layer of government.  Although  no one has actually signed away any constitutionally protected rights, the very structure of association housing has placed obstacles in the full use and enjoyment of those rights.  All these changes occurred without the consent of the governed.

It was time to change that!  Association Evaluation, LLC decided to ask the very people stuck in these developments to share their thoughts, concerns and their experiences.  In a survey available online for about a month, over 300 people responded.  And how did homeowners respond to those questions?  The results of that survey have been tabulated and are available, in their entirety, no editing and no summaries, and are available for your inspection on the Coalition for Consumer Housing Policy in the Public Interest web page.

Deborah Goonan joins us On The Commons this week.  Deborah, is a prolific blogger and commentator about all things to do with homeowner associations, condominiums and co-operatives.  In addition to being a contributing writer for blogs and several online venues, she has her own blog called Independent American Communities.  Deborah was one of the people who worked behind the scenes on this survey right from the very beginning.  She explains why they asked the questions and talks about the responses they got.  Apparently not everything is as rosy and carefree in residential America as we have been led to believe.  There are some serious issues and some very serious problems.  One of the big problems is the lack of choices for housing consumers.  There are few surprises in the results.  The comments are consistent with what we have been hearing from the real people who have to live in the forced mandatory membership developments.