re: Three upper class Madison/Reservoir subdivision HOAs may have been taken for 7 figures

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I always figured HOA dues can easily be mishandled.
Think about it. 200 home subdivision, $300/ year dues. That's $60,000 some one is in charge of. What are you paying for? Some excon (and/or relative of a hoa board member) will get paid to landscape and mow the common areas all year. How much is that? Some have to pay for street lights. Power company doesn't charge too much. Maybe $100/year per light. Ok, that could add up. Still maybe $10,000/ year for lights. Still not getting to $60k.

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Also add in pool (or pools in some cases) maintenance, possibly guards along with life guards during summer pool open hours, and liability insurance for pool. Though i am sure there are kick backs or some benefit to board or management company as our budgeted expense for these and landscaping seem high.

Although when buyers want to use a house as a teen homeless house but not ready to comment to doing this within their own neighborhood or when out of state investor buys house to use as a full time AirBNB extended stay hotel with zero owner presence or full time resident in house HOAs can be helpful. Sending me a warning letter dated following day that my roof shingles were blown off and a section of fence blown down from a storm declared some type of regional emergency with a lot of people in same boat throughout city is not so helpful.