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Cost growth, 2021 to 2025
Read Part 1, cost growth

Assessments rose 50.5%, about twice inflation.3,000+ associations on the platform

Insurance75%
Utilities63%
Reserves44%
Maintenance26%
Homes
Read the report

In professionally managed communities, across 52,000+ associations on the platform.

6.5M
Homeowners
Read Part 2, homeowners

Would accept a dues increase that comes with a clear explanation.Survey of 470 homeowners, June 2026

73%
Doors per staff member
Read Part 3, capacity

At AI-enabled companies, against 436 at traditional ones.

669
Staff notes a minute
See one minute on the platform

Plus 5 violations and 2 work orders, averaged across 6.5M homes.

600
Thank-yous to profanities
See more from the data

Across 34,000+ AI-assisted support calls.

40:1

State of the Industry 2026

Managed community living in America, and how an essential ecosystem is learning to operate differently.

Managed community living is entering a new operating era.

How can management companies absorb rising complexity, meet growing expectations and create more capacity without losing the human relationships that make communities work?

  1. Costs are rising+50.5%in assessments since 2021, about twice the rate of inflation
  2. Expectations are growing16.8%of homeowners say they get all the information they need
  3. Labor remains constrained+46%in doors managed per staff member since 2020
  4. Technology is accelerating95%of surveyed management companies are in some stage of AI adoption

Millions of Americans wake up every day in a professionally managed community. Behind them is an enormous operating ecosystem of management companies, community managers, boards, vendors and service providers.

This report brings together operational data and independent survey research to show how the economics, operations and experiences of community living are changing.

Community associations
52,000+
Homes
6.5M
Management companies
546
Survey respondents
654
Part 1Here’s what we see

Part 1Part 2Part 3

The economics have reset.

Insurance and utilities outran assessments, and the burden landed unevenly. Each of those pressures becomes work someone at the management company has to coordinate.

  • Assessments versus inflation
  • Insurance: paying more, carrying more risk
  • Special assessments and an uneven burden
  • More complexity per employee
Read Part 1

50.5%assessment growth since 2021, about twice the rate of inflation

  1. Insurance 75%
  2. Utilities 63%
  3. Assessments
  4. Reserves 44%
  5. Maintenance 26%
  6. Inflation 25%
3,000+ associations observed, 2021 to 2025. Vantaca platform data; inflation from the U.S. Consumer Price Index.
Part 2Here’s why it matters

Part 1Part 2Part 3

When people see the work, they see the value.

Homeowners, management company leaders and vendors feel the pressure differently. All three are asking the system to work with more clarity, speed and confidence.

  • Homeowners: make the value visible
  • Management companies: carrying more of the load
  • A business model shifting with the operating model
  • Vendors: where friction becomes visible
Read Part 2

73%of homeowners would accept a dues increase with a clear explanation

Say their dues are too high
39.4%
Get all the information they need
16.8%
Each square is 1% of homeowners surveyed. Independent homeowner survey, June 2026.
Part 3Here’s what’s working

Part 1Part 2Part 3

Capacity isn’t headcount. It’s where human time goes.

Leading management companies are letting technology absorb routine work and reinvesting the time in boards, communities and relationships.

  • A new staffing model is emerging
  • Let technology absorb the routine work
  • Make the invisible visible
  • Reinvest the capacity in the work only people can do
Read Part 3

53%more doors per staff member at AI-enabled companies

436Traditional, 40 companies

669AI-enabled, 61 companies

Doors per staff member; each dot is 10 doors. The same companies, tracked from six months after launch to September 2026. Observational, so this shows correlation, not causation.

Someone’s Tuesday.

One home, one year: 28 community emails and 40+ staff notes. Across 6.5 million homes, this is one minute of it, in real time.

An average, not a live feed: a year of platform activity across 6.5 million homes, spread evenly over every second. Vantaca platform data.

“They’re now spending that time building relationships with their boards, focusing on capital improvement projects, and really investing that human knowledge and expertise where it is needed.”
Trever MidgleyManaging Partner, HOA Strategies

Also in the data.

Behind 52,000+ associations are a lot of very human moments.

1 in 9

The Bin Wins

Violation notices about a trash can. More than every vehicle problem combined.

40:1

Polite to AI

Thank-yous to profanities on 34,000+ AI-assisted support calls.

1 in 20,000

Nicer Than the Internet Thinks

Homeowner messages that say “per my last email.” Nearly half say thank you.

1 in 3

The Volunteer Shift

Board invoice approvals made at night or on weekends. Most board meetings start at 6 p.m.

1,813

The AI Renovation

AI renovation mock-ups a year in architecture requests, up from 9 two years earlier.

3×

Every State Has a Nemesis

Georgia’s rate of mailbox violations against the national rate. Florida’s is mildew.

The human relationship works. The opportunity is to scale it.

All three parts, 654 survey respondents and every source, in one PDF.

How this report was built

Two kinds of evidence, kept apart: what the platform records and what people told us.

654 people answered three independent surveys in June 2026.
  • 470Homeowners
  • 84Executives
  • 100Service providers

Third-party surveys of homeowners (195 of them board members), management company executives and service providers in six trades. Answered anonymously.

Platform data
52,000+ associations
6.5 million homes and 546 management companies, September 2026. Change over time follows the same 3,000+ associations from 2021 to 2025.
Comparisons
Observational, not causal
AI-enabled and traditional companies weren’t randomly assigned, so the gaps between them show correlation, not cause.