After living in California for several years, Kevin Sherry decided he was ready for a change. In the summer of 2010, the Morton Grove native decided to move back to Chicago.
“I love the city. I love that every block is a different neighborhood,” Sherry said. “You drive down the street and there’s an apartment, a dry cleaners, a pub and then there’s another apartment. It’s just this amazing mix.”
Sherry bought a condo in Andersonville’s historic Map Factory Lofts, a building with a homeowners association. The 1895 structure was used by the Swedish-American Telephone Co. from 1905 to 1923, and then by Denoyer-Geppert, which manufactured maps and globes at the site.
His unit used to house administrative offices. “My bedroom and the living room were both vaults,” Sherry said. “I literally have (vault) doors to my bedroom and to my living room. They are quarter-inch steel. That was one of the things that sold me on the place.”
Sherry, who had never previously owned a home, said he likes having a property manager who is responsible for building maintenance. “I don’t have to worry about it,” he said.
He added that his living situation is also easier because he has an HOA that is “very transparent about everything, so we can see where the money is going.”
The experience of owning a home and being part of an HOA, however, wasn’t the same for Laurie Mark and Jessie Shepherd, who lived in a 10-story West Loop condo building for nearly eight years.
Like Sherry, both Mark and Shepherd loved their neighborhood.
“We’re city people. We don’t want to be in the suburbs,” Mark said. “We don’t want a yard and don’t have kids. It’s close to work and is a hot neighborhood. Our friends live here.”
After relocating to Los Angeles, the West Loop couple initially wanted to keep their property as an investment or a place to move back to someday. But unanswered questions over increases in their homeowner association fees solidified their decision to sell late last year.
“We live in a pretty high efficiency building, so it’s frustrating when we don’t have amenities and wonder where (assessment funds) are going,” Mark said. “If we had more transparency and disclosures in the day-to-day, then we might not be so salty.”
Community associations, which include condominiums, planned developments and co-ops, are rapidly increasing in size and number.
Assessments — the fees paid each month by a homeowner for community expenses — also continue to grow. And consumers such as Mark and Shepherd are seeking greater transparency and understanding of their community’s budget and expenses.
“Nearly 60% of homes built today are in some sort of community association,” said Jake Gold, executive director of the Foundation for Community Association Research, based in Falls Church, Virginia. “There were (about) 10,000 community associations nationwide in 1970. We estimate now there’s about 370,000.”
FCAR’s 2024 U.S. National and State Statistical Review lists nearly 20,000 community associations in Illinois, which encompass more than 1.5 million housing units.
“In the downtown Chicago market, there are roughly 140,000 condo and rental units,” said Gail Lissner, a real estate appraiser and consultant who specializes in the multifamily market and is managing director at Integra Realty Resources.
As condo buildings in Chicago age, “they have more capital needs for repairs and ongoing maintenance,” Lissner said. Those capital needs often translate into costs for homeowners.
The variable cost
Monthly assessments, also called maintenance fees, “support the budget of the community when (owners) sign the dotted line and buy their home,” Gold said.
Special assessments, however, “are one-time fees (that are) unexpected, where something might happen or they need to replace something, and the owners have to contribute to fund that (too),” he said.
Although the monthly fees are sometimes called dues, Gold doesn’t use that term. “An HOA is not a voluntary club that someone joins,” he said.
In addition to the cost of ongoing maintenance, “these fees are impacted by the number of units, how owners want the building to operate, (the building’s) age and level of services,” Lissner said.
Tony Mattar, a Chicago real estate agent who also serves on the board of the 200-unit condominium association in the Loop where he lives, noted the differences between core expenses paid by every association, regardless of size or services offered, and optional amenities.
Core expenses include a master insurance policy as well as the maintenance of exterior and interior common spaces. In contrast, optional amenities vary wildly, from parking spaces and party rooms to pools, gyms and door staff.
The assessments paid by an owner for this type of combination can run the gamut, Mattar said.
Many HOAs offer few, if any, optional amenities. In fact, “Some buyers are attracted to ‘nonamenity’ buildings,” Lissner said.
“We’re budgeting for whatever the costs we need in order to run and operate the building (now) and to the reserve fund, which is essentially the HOA’s savings account for unforeseen things or eventual projects,” Mattar said.
Each homeowner’s assessment is based on this total budget “divided by the percentage of ownership that you have as a unit or a parking space owner,” he said.
This means that HOAs must forecast future expenses and analyze reserve funds, which could involve bringing in an outside expert.
“The most forward-thinking HOAs will use an engineer report to increase assessments over time,” said Eric Carlson, a real estate broker with Baird & Warner in Chicago.
Where the money goes
Homeowners who are part of HOAs say communication is key.
Sherry, who lives in a 40-unit building, wants to know how his assessments stack up against others: “Are we overpaying for whatever service is on the list — landscaping, snow clearing. Are we getting a good deal?”
Mark wants to see competitive bids. “Any time fees go up, they should tell us why. If there’s a special assessment, they should give full transparency,” she said. “When it comes to special assessments, we want a fair deal.”
Sherry said his HOA board is forthcoming with information. “I can see exactly where the money is going based on the detailed budget we get,” he said.
Even as his monthly assessments increased this year by 10%, Sherry said he remains pleased.
Mark and Shepherd, on the other hand, say they had to “chase someone to get answers” because their HOA board meetings are not open, and minutes are disclosed only upon request.
Kevin Mitrick, an attorney specializing in real estate with the law firm Howard & Howard, said questions around disclosures are common. The most common is the timing required during the purchase or sale of a property, he said.
“I’ll have clients that are either members of condominium boards or owners who contact me asking for guidance on what (documents) they’re entitled to review and what they’re allowed to disseminate,” he said.
Current owners are entitled to copies of documents, including minutes and financials, under Section 19 of the Illinois Condominium Property Act, said Mitrick, who noted that owners must request documents in writing.
A lack of disclosure doesn’t imply wrongdoing. “It’s just that some of these documents don’t exist. Some of these smaller associations may do things very informally, and may not have every document that you’re looking for,” Mitrick said. “There’s (also) a category of items that the association doesn’t have to provide unless there’s a court order.”
Although Mark and Shepherd are not alone in their dissatisfaction with their HOA, an FCAR survey says 67% of Illinois respondents rate their experience with their community association as positive.
Increases and inflation
According to FCAR, which conducts research for the community association industry, the average assessment in Illinois rose from $343 per month in 2018 to about $445 per month in 2024, an increase of roughly 4.5% per year.
Over this same time period, the consumer inflation rate has averaged 3.5% per year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“Inflation may be a good benchmark, but it is not a tool,” Mattar said. He noted that increases for the purpose of boosting an HOA’s reserves might outpace inflation when trying to anticipate future expenses.
“A smaller building will not be hit by as many inflationary issues,” Carlson said.
And Lissner said insurance is the “primary expense (for HOAs) that has consistently outpaced inflation.”
Carlson added that tariffs imposed by the administration of President Donald Trump might affect maintenance work in older buildings that require parts for things such as elevators and AC systems, which could increase expenses and, consequently, each owner’s monthly assessment.
Although some industrywide data is available to homeowners and associations, industry averages do not shed light on building-specific circumstances.
This is partly due to the variety of amenities offered by individual HOAs. “Each condo is vastly different, so using industrywide averages is like trying to compare all animals,” Carlson said.
“(FCAR has) a series of best practices reports, a fact book, we do surveys, trying to help provide information to help this growing industry,” Gold said.
“Averages and medians only mean so much when you could segment out buildings in Chicago into 100 different segments of what their HOA dues cover,” Mattar said.
Gold said this can be challenging, particularly in the absence of uniform disclosure requirements other than what a potential buyer needs in order to obtain financing for a home.
“Averages alone don’t tell the whole story,” he said. “They provide a helpful macro-level indicator of trends over time (inflation, maintenance or insurance impacts), (but) they’re not meant to be used for direct community-to-community comparison.”
Still, he said, “the data helps policymakers, insurers and researchers understand the economic scale and financial health of the community association housing model overall.”
Even similar-sized buildings handle expenses differently. Mattar gave the example of an HOA where the six owners reduced their assessments by doing their own landscaping.
“Once or twice a year, as a group, they weed the beds in their front yard and plant some flowers,” Mattar said. “So they keep their dues pretty low because they’re not hiring a landscape company. They pitch in and make it a fun day and drink beer while they’re sort of doing their landscaping.”
How agents help
One tool used by real estate brokers such as Carlson and Mattar in advising buyers is Illinois’ mandatory Section 22.1 Disclosures, which are required during the sale of property in an HOA.
These include the HOA’s governing legal documents as well as specific financial disclosures.
“Before closing, buyers get these, which share if any assessments are in arrears, if there is any pending litigation, 24 months of financials, what reserves are in the HOA and minutes from board meetings,” Carlson said.
The decision often comes down to the total amount the buyer is willing to spend each month, but “people are willing to spend more on the mortgage than HOA assessments,” Carlson said.
For Mattar, built-in variables also affect how HOAs operate. “Boards change. Buildings can get behind even when not for nefarious reasons,” he said. “This elasticity is a risk you take when buying in.”
Overall, Sherry is satisfied with his HOA assessments. “There’s never been a time that (assessments) went up such a ridiculous amount that I even noticed,” he said. “I glanced at the number, thought that seemed about right and moved on with my life.”
Meanwhile, Mark and Shepherd have learned from their experience in Chicago and are asking more questions as they look for a new home in Los Angeles.
“What are assessments being used for?” Mark asked. “How often are reserves being used? Are there multiple plumbing problems? Are any special assessments coming up?”
Mark wants more information, particularly with special assessments: “We want a fair deal, so a composite of what’s out there so we can see if we’re being cheated or not would be helpful.”
John W. Bateman is a freelance writer.
