I don't live in the US, but I hear endless stories about something called a "home owners association" or whatever else that seem to imply that in suburban situations, having substantial amounts of outside space might be pointless because you can't actually use it as you feel fit - e.g. something basic like stacking building materials outside might be considered Unsightly(tm).

So you have to actually go rural to do stuff.

Or is that something that's restricted to only a few special neighbourhoods?

I can't imagine even entertaining the idea of buying a home there. If my neighbour demanded I cut the grass or something daft like that and backed it up with a legal threat I'd either have to move out or just eventually go postal.

> having substantial amounts of outside space might be pointless because you can't actually use it as you feel fit

While front yards might fall onto that, backyards are pretty much off-limits to HOA, unless one does things that inconvenience neighbors, like obstruct their view or keep animals that are noisy.

There are a great many suburban neighbourhoods with no HOA. From what I can tell (at least in the Northeast), they're limited to neighbourhoods of well above median income—I would guess that the houses would probably start somewhere in the 7-800k range (which, in suburbia, probably gets you 5-6k square feet or more), and go up pretty fast from there.

HOAs and their restrictions seem very much to be a form of conspicuous consumption—"we can afford to keep our lawns all precisely the same length, and precisely the same shade of green, regardless of the fact that we're in a months-long drought"—as well as a vehicle for petty tyrants who enjoy enforcing their particular idea of what A Perfect House And Lawn looks like on everyone in their development.

It's very common in some parts of the country. AFAICT it's much more common in the south. There's definitely places in the northern states that have HOAs but it feels much less ubiquitous.

Also, IIRC many/most condos and townhomes often have something like an HOA that serves their common interests and joint expenses.

I've read of cases where people haven't been able to have a neat vegetable garden in their front yard, or xeriscape with a rock/cactus garden. Strikes me as crazy.