The Buck Stops Here

At times it may be easy to forget the size and impact of our great state, California. So is a quick review.  The estimated total population of the United States is 313,914,040 and growing, of which 38,041,430 live in the state of California. California is the most populous state in the U.S., and is 3rd in geographical size after Alaska and Texas.  Twelve percent (12 %) of the total United States population call the great state of California home. Source: U.S. Census Bureau

According to the California Department of Real Estate approximately 38% of California’s population live in a common interest development (CID), approximately 14,455,743 people. Therefore over 14 million people are responsible for paying assessments to their CID and thus helping to fund their CID reserve fund.  Source: California Department Of Real Estate

“According to the last estimate compiled by the Davis-Stirling Law Revision Commission, there are more than 50,000 CIDs in California, ranging in size from three to 27,000 units each.“ TRACY GORDON 2002

In California there is no statutory requirement for associations to fund their reserves at any particular threshold, however the state does requires associations conduct a full and complete reserve study with a site inspection of components once every three (3) years and update the reserve study every year. Peter McNabb, Principal at Barrera And Company keeps his finger on the pulse of associations’ reserves in California. Barrera and Company, helped break down the California association reserve funding thresholds by percentage, otherwise known as “percent funded”. Peter shares for 2012, 21% of California’s Associations are funded at 100% or above, 45% of associations are funded from 50% to 99% and 32% are funding their reserves below 25%.  An interesting statistic would be to correlate the number of associations with healthy reserves to those that are professionally managed by CACM members and the professional assembly.  However to date that statistic is not available.  In the mean time it is fair to say associations that are professionally managed appreciate the hard work of their management team and their accounting professionals like Barrera and Company, to help their communities plan for tomorrow while helping associations meet their statutory requirements.

There are approximately 130,000 community associations in the United States. CAI shares according to Zogby Ibope, a nation wide survey for 2012, association boards supervised the collection of approximately $40 billion in annual assessments.  Moreover nationwide, volunteer Boards were responsible for supervising reserve funds in excess of $35 billion.

Source: Community Association Institute