SIDE STREETS: Think your HOA dues are too high? It's all relative

Mention “homeowners association dues” to some people and prepare for an eruption of profanity or, at least, a rant about busy body neighbors wasting their money.

Every week I get calls from people complaining about their HOA dues. So I was interested to read a flier distributed at the 2009 Parade of Homes. It listed annual dues for some of the most prestigious neighborhoods in Colorado Springs.

Grab something sturdy, if you are easily startled. The highest annual dues in the region? Try $6,000 at Toscano at Flying Horse, a subdivision within the exclusive new Flying Horse golf course community on Colorado Springs’ northeastern edge.

That is exactly 100 times more than my Rockrimmon HOA charges per year.

Because Toscano is such a new neighborhood — it has only one resident among its 35 lots and an empty Parade home that will go to the first person with $3.9 million to pony up — the Flying Horse HOA hasn’t collected $6,000 yet.

For now, it only charges the $900 assessed annually by the master HOA to all Flying Horse residents, said Michelle Green, the HOA community manager.

So what do Toscano residents get for their $6,000? Certainly that must include membership in the Flying Horse Club, with its dining room, fitness center and pool. Right?

Wrong.

“They pay for the club and spa separately,” Green said. “Those memberships range from $15,000 to $30,000 a year.”

Gotcha. Well then, $6,000 isn’t so much after all.

Green explained that the $6,000 will pay for upkeep of landscaping  and the common grounds along Vine Cliff Heights, the main road through Toscano.

“We have to maintain the automatic gates,” she said.

The fee also pays for maintenance of the guardhouse at the entrance and part of the expense of the guard.

The dues pay for snow removal on the private streets and drives of Toscano. But don’t expect to get your 1½-acre to 2 acre lots mowed for your dues. You are on your own, Green said.

“We do maintain a 20-foot strip on both sides of Vine Cliff Heights, but not the entire lots,” she said.

If Toscano’s dues are too steep, perhaps you might try moving into a more affordable neighborhood. The Parade flier lists several relative bargains, by comparison.

For example, Kissing Camels on the mesa overlooking Garden of the Gods checks in second with annual dues of $4,020.

Stratton Pines, in the foothills near Skyway, charges $3,600, according to the report, followed by the Broadmoor Resort Community at $3,360 and Stonebridge at Cedar Heights at $3,133. Cedar Heights, which overlooks the Garden of the Gods from the western foothills, charges $2,408 and Stratton Preserve Estates rounds out the top seven at $2,208 per year.

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See more about Flying Horse on my blog.