HOAs were never originally a good thing. From their very beginnings in the early 1900s, they served to exclude racial and religious minorities from buying homes

HOAs were never originally a good thing. From their very beginnings in the early 1900s, they served to exclude racial and religious minorities from buying homes. These racial/religious covenants were only struck down in 1968 with the Fair Housing Act. But because HOAs still get to investigate, interview, and reject prospective buyers, many of them still discriminate unofficially. As a consequence, some minorities (e.g., Black people) are underrepresented in HOA neighborhoods.