SURGE in HOA RENTALS

I am a Board member & My HOA is currently in the process of amending our CC&R's that will prohibit the rental of any unit for 12 months after transfer of deed and also kicking up the rental terms from a minimum of 3 months, 2 times per year to a minimum of 6 months 2 times per year. We have gotten the legal opinion and of course all the legal ease & members are voting now.There a a ton of valid reasons to limit the number of rentals in a residential complex such as ours.Our complex is small and if we have 12 units, it will make it more difficult for any buyer doing a Freddie or Fannie backed mortgage, not to mention the effect on the appraisal & property values.Our values have dropped no less than 48% from their peak.We are on our 3rd foreclosure with another coming.We have a great potential to have 10 rentals.Long term owners have recently sold & negotiated prices that have created terrible comps yet these owners were able to have great profits, but those comps have killed our values.It is because the terrible market conditions in Arizona that our community has great appeal to investors who have no intention of living in the town homes.These proposals have caused a great uproar because a group of owners feel that we are limiting the buyer pool.They are correct in that we want a quality buyer who will not create another rental.Of interest is that the properties that were foreclosured on were properties that were NEVER offered for rent or for sale. The owners chose to walk.What happened is that the owners all had second mortagages that put them so far upside down that it didn't even make sense to do a short sale.The main complaint from the opposition is that it is better to have rentals than foreclosures.In the short term, I would say yes, but in the long term no!All the people that are doing "Strategic defaults" are now becoming renters and unless someone is planning on living in a home for several years, there is really no upside to buying property unless you can steal it.This is the catch 22 of the Arizona real estate market that we are experiencing.Any ideas to convince the no voters that this is the right thing to do for the times we are living in?

PS. The comps are a problem of your local market issues, not the renters. Its not something you can fix. The economy needs to improve.

It seems clear that you can only hope to win the votes of homeowners who are long-term residents and on solid financial footing. Everybody who is in danger of foreclosure or who already rents their unit(s) or thinks that they might sell in the next 5 years or thinks that they may need to rent their unit out to support themselves are going to vote against rental restrictions. No argument is going to convince them because it goes against their own interest.

Your arguments are the right ones to convince homeowners who are long-term residents and on solid financial footing. You've hit the usual arguments well enough: loan requirements, quality of life, higher resale price for a well-maintained, owner-filled community than a poorly-maintained, renter-filled community.

But, considering the economy, the shaky finances/rental people might already outnumber the solid finances people.

Who knows some foreclosed owners could end up renting their former homes for less than their mortgage payment.

Real estate crashed in the 1980's, and again in 2000's. It will come back, everything is a cycle. Buy low, sell high!