What Homeowners Really Think About HOA Life — Inside the 2026 Homeowner Satisfaction Survey with Jake Gold (FCAR)

We've all seen the viral HOA horror stories. But what do the people who actually live in a community association think? For 21 years — across 11 surveys, a housing crisis, a pandemic, and historic inflation — the Foundation for Community Association Research has asked residents directly, in a nationally representative survey representing the 74 million Americans who live in community associations. The answer keeps coming back the same: the overwhelming majority are satisfied with community association living.In this episode of Guilty by Association, host Maegen Woytek talks with Jake Gold, CAE, Executive Director of FCAR, about the just-released 2026 Homeowner Satisfaction Survey, "Preferred Places to Call Home." They dig into why a consistent 21-year benchmark beats the one-off study that trends for a week and disappears, the gap between the headlines and the data, and the people the narrative usually overlooks — the volunteer boards and community managers running multi-million-dollar operations.Chapter Breakdown:00:00 - 03:45 - Intro03:45 - 09:09 - The 2026 Homeowner Satisfaction Survey09:09 -13:44 - Biggest Surprises from the Survey13:44 - 16:31 - Can Technology Help CAMs Increase Satisfaction with Residents16:31 - 19:28 - The Gap Between What Residents Want and What They're Getting Today19:28 - 22:34- How Can the Ecosystem Best Use These Survey Findings 22:34 - 26:09 - What's Next for the Foundation? For more information on the Foundation of Community Research:Website: https://foundation.caionline.org/The 2026 Homeowner Satisfaction Survey: https://foundation.caionline.org/research/survey_homeowner/Jake Gold: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jake-gold-a5b5b212/