If you want a new home without a homeowners association, the first thing to know is how many new homes come with one. The Census Bureau's Survey of Construction asks, for each sampled new house, whether it will be part of a community or homeowners association. Census defines these as formal legal bodies, usually set up when the development is built, with membership that's mandatory. So the answer covers associations you have to join, not voluntary neighborhood groups.
OneFabHome looked at the homes completed in 2025 that also had a sale agreed in 2025. Of 6,464 such homes in the sample, 79.6% were in an association. Put the other way, roughly one new home in five sold by a builder had no association at all.
A lower price doesn't mean no HOA
You might expect a cheaper new home to come without the association and its rules. The data doesn't support it. For this comparison OneFabHome used only homes whose sale price Census didn't alter for privacy. 78.5% of new homes that sold for under $400,000 had an association, 82.3% of those between $400,000 and $599,999, and 82.2% of those at $600,000 or more. The gap between the cheapest and the most expensive band is a few percentage points.
New homes completed and sold in 2025 with an association, by sale price
Homes completed and sold in 2025, unaltered sale price. Source: Census Bureau Survey of Construction, homes completed in 2025, weighted.
The South Atlantic states, from Delaware to Florida, have the largest sample, so they make a good test of the same question within one region. There, 79.7% of homes under $400,000 had an association, 85.5% in the middle band and 87.6% at $600,000 or more. The gap is wider there, but even in the cheapest band about four homes in five had an association.
Where you buy matters far more
Region changes the picture completely. Among new homes sold in 2025, the share with an association ranged from 55.1% in the West North Central states to 92.1% in the Mountain states.
New homes completed and sold in 2025 with an association, by Census division
Homes completed and sold in 2025. New England has too few sampled sales to show. Source: Census Bureau Survey of Construction, homes completed in 2025, weighted.
In the Mountain and West South Central states, a new home sold by a builder without an association is the exception: more than nine in ten have one. In the Middle Atlantic and West North Central states, buyers have a much more even choice. New England didn't have enough sampled sales to report.
Townhouses almost always have one
Attached homes, such as townhouses, share walls and often grounds, and more than nine in ten come with an association: 91.5% of those sold in 2025 did. For detached houses the figure was 77.3%.
The clearest way out: build on your own lot
The figures above cover homes builders put up and sold. The survey also covers homes built for an owner on land the owner already has, either by a hired general contractor or by the owner building it or acting as general contractor. Those homes are far less likely to be in an association. Of new homes completed in 2025, 24.0% of contractor-built homes on the owner's land and 14.3% of owner-built homes were in one. That's a fraction of the rate for homes sold by builders.
It isn't a guarantee: the owner's lot can still sit inside a community with an association. And in our build time comparison, homes of 2,000 to 2,999 square feet built on the owner's land took longer than homes builders put up to sell. If avoiding an association is a priority, homes built on the buyer's own land were far less likely to have one.
Age-restricted communities are a small slice
A related question is whether HOA homes are mostly 55-plus communities. They aren't. Of the new homes sold in 2025 that were in an association and answered the question, 4.4% were in an age-restricted development.
Questions to ask before you sign
- What are the current dues, how have they changed over the last three years, and who controls the association today: the builder or the owners?
- Can I see the rules, the budget and the reserve study before the contract is binding?
- What do the rules say about parking, sheds, fences, rentals and changes to the outside of the house?
- Is there more than one association, such as a master community plus a neighborhood association, each with its own dues?
More from the same survey
If you might want a bigger garage or a detached one later, check what the association rules allow. If you're weighing a home built on your own land, start with how long a build takes. For what's inside the house, see three or four bedrooms in the same size house and where builders put the laundry.