I feel like the really strict areas are HOAs. I would never live in an HOA that can dictate every little thing I could do. I almost backed out of buying my house cuz the realtor sent over an HOA contract and I was like "wait, nvm, if I have to be in an HOA I don't want this house." Turns out I'm one street away from an HOA so lucky I don't have to deal with that. It's actually funny because when I walk you can tell where the HOA starts and where it ends. This one house must wait until the absolute last minute to mow to mock them because the grass was always really tall in the front yard whenever I would walk by.

HOAs are ruthless and expensive. My father in law used to live in a place with an HOA and his house had to be within certain range of colors, he lawn could only be so tall, it has to be sprayed every so often, and he couldn't have certain types of decorations and yard furniture.

Yeah I would not want to live somewhere where everything gets dictated by some grumpy old retired white woman who has nothing better to do than to nitpick at others
Read a story where a couple were getting hoa fines from one they weren't a part of, they were one house off and so weren't under their rules
She finally caught the person being a shitstain to them by sunbathing naked in their FENCED back yard (privacy fence, at that) and they called the police for that

….i don’t know what a HOA is lol. XD;;

Homeowners associations.

Honestly, there are some here for certain places since they need to pay for like snow plows and simple maintenance and that's it. The ones that dictate every little thing, oh no, no thank you. I told myself that if I ever need to reside my house I am going to go with a dark teal because every house near me is tan or grey. I want some more uniqueness. I don't know why all the new cookie cutter houses have to have the same old colors, but I do know HOAs tend to lean towards the blah tan, white, and grey siding.

Yeah a lot of HOAs can help with plowing or fund block activities, but a lot of them are super controlling because if all of the houses on the block look "nice" then the property values go up.

wow i'm so in the dark lol, not even knowing what an HOA is. xD;;

They are more common in some areas than others. The neighborhood I grew up in didn't have one but richer neighborhood about a mile away had one.

i'm pretty sure we have one here. 8u maybe? but i've never paid much attention. lol

Meanwhile the county I live in has more cows than people to where you know a county census is happening cuz the billboards are about "will we finally have more people than cows? Participate in the census!" with the image showing several cows