Yard signs vs. House signs

Please cite the exact wording of your HOA's "policy." Is it actually a CC&R section or Rule & Regulation?

It seems to me that if the rule specifically says no only to yard signs, the HOA cannot arbitrarily include the windows of the home, the front door or even a front porch if they exist.

It is a policy which reads (see below). The majority vote on the committee was to not cite the sign at the front door as a violation. Sounds like you would agree.
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Yard Sign Policy (Adopted 5/09, Modified 2/11)
Traditionally certain yard signs have been accepted during a limited time frame.
The following policy clarifies and defines what signs will be accepted:

 One professional sign of not more than five-foot square advertising the
property for sale or rent.

 A Developer may post one sign during the construction or remodeling
stage on a property.

 Garage, Estate or Yard sale signs for members will be limited to two
signs. These signs will be posted only on the day of the sale. The
signs will not exceed the five square foot model.

 Political signs are limited to only two signs whether it’s for a candidate
or a measure. The signs are allowed for up to three weeks prior to
Election Day. Signs must be removed the day after the election.

Our HOA consists of private homes on private lots. All maintenance on the private lots, including front doors, is the owner's responsibility. The HOAi in its covenants, has use restrictions on the private lots that allow the Board to create regulations such as a sign policy.

Do your CC&Rs address signage at all, other than allowing the board to create policies? Check in the Restrictions section of your CC&Rs, since that's usually where you find a signage restriction.

FWIW, in my condo community, one For Sale or For Rent sign is permitted in the mulched area in front of the building, and that's it. Stuff placed in the window and other signs/decorative flags are prohibited. But we're condos, so anything outside of the units is common area and does not belong to the unit owners individually - I'd expect our rules and restrictions to be more strict since the stuff interferes with maintenance.

Also FWIW, I've noticed a tendency in the last several years for people to treat their yards as their personal social media accounts. The decorative stuff seems to metastasize, and the community starts to look junky and "down market". And I personally worry about the signs that schools provide to acknowledge students' achievements (I refer to these as the "hello, pedophiles" signs). At any rate, some people believe that associations should support property values, although this is open to debate - but all the decorative stuff actually does the opposite.

We ran into issues with signs and flags the last election year, so we changed our rules. No signs except small real estate for sale signs (exact measurements and typography laid out in rules) and have very specific restrictions that signs cannot be on the house or in the windows if in view of the street. This is in our rules and regulations document. In Florida, you have to allow certain flags (Us, state, some military) by statute so of course we allow those, but nothing, sign or flag, with a political message. You can have the little yard flags but again no political messages. It's probably our toughest rule and believe it or not, we get pushback for allowing (not disallowing) little yard signs asking neighbors not to allow their dog to poop on their yard. The busybodies on one particular street come to almost every board meeting despite being told we made an exception for these signs. Now we have some Ukrainian flags that we are going to ask to remove because although everyone supports Ukraine, is there any difference between Ukrainian flag, BLM flag, or thin blue line flag?

I believe there are some states you cannot have these restrictions so you may want to check your state statutes.

The first amendment protects you from being prosecuted *by the government* for what you say. Private entities can and do restrict speech. And while the first amendment protects what you say, it doesn't guarantee you a platform from which to spout.

With HOAs and COAs, the rules can be different because in condo communities the entire exterior is common elements and not owned by any one individual.

The condo association can make rules about the kind of signage can appear in "your" front yard because it isn't "yours". And you have the practical issue of signage interfering with the lawn crew's ability to do their work - in an HOA that doesn't provide lawn care, if you want to make it difficult to cut your own grass, then be my guest.

Finally, with condos you're dealing with housing density, so the sheer number of signs per square foot matters if you care about aesthetics. Our condo board has apparently stopped enforcing any kind of signage rules, and the place is starting to look junky - it certainly doesn't scream "upscale". (If you think that's arbitrary, take a look at model homes and see how many decorative signs and flags they have. Few to none. Not only does the stuff get in the way and need to be maintained, home sellers know that for every person who thinks "that's cute", another person will think "ugh" - why risk turning off buyers? And nowadays, a lot of people are vehemently turned off by a lot of stuff.)

Because everyone knows attractiveness is not what makes homebuying and home prices rise
Its the economy !!!

our HOA has been incredibly slack enforcing violations during Covid and guess what house selling prices have never ever been higher by a long shot

so don’t make up some fake logic about attractiveness increasing value
M

it pales in comparison to the general economy which is the real reason housing prices rise or fall

Anyone who believes their First Amendment rights are being violated by their HOA for not letting them put signs in their yard should not be living in an HOA and doesn't understand how HOAs work.

I understand that some states do not allow HOAs to regulate signs. In some states they do. Here's an excerpt from a recent article by one of Florida's largest HOA attornies. I think it explains the situation very well:

Some owners maintain that their constitutional rights are being trampled if their association denies them the right to install a political sign or political flag. In fact, you need a state actor to be the entity violating one’s First Amendment rights in order to mount a sound constitutional argument. In Florida, condos and HOAs have not been found to be state actors so prohibiting political signs and political flags is possible either through a recorded covenant or a board rule if the board has rule-making authority under the governing documents. In the case of Quail Creek Prop. Owners Association, Inc. v. Hunter, 538 So. 2d 1288, 1289 (Fla. 2nd DCA 1989), the Second District Court of Appeal found that an association’s sign restriction was not unconstitutional as “neither the recording of the protective covenant in the public records, nor the possible enforcement of the covenant in the courts of the state, constitutes sufficient “state action” to render the parties’ purely private contracts relating to the ownership of real property unconstitutional.”

Also, tasteful/not tasteful is so subjective. On one street in my community, where the busy bodies are so concerned with the "do not let your dog poop in my yard" small signs, they think it's "tasteful" to have geese statues that wear clothes, statues of leaping dolphins, and small yard flags with every manor of cutesy saying. We have a 4-square foot rule so as long as a yard decoration is over 4 square feet and not obscene it's allowed. It's all a matter of perspective.

Each resident has the right to put a sign on the gate, the wall of the house, or the window. Usually, our signs show house numbers and street names. We recently had new gates installed, so we decided to order a new stylish sign. We decided to engrave the street name, our house number, and our family name. I think it looks amazing. We ordered a minimalistic sign there https://baliandboo.com/collections/house-signs. Many neighbors were impressed with it and asked for the contacts of the company that designed such a beautiful sign.