There could be shenanigans afoot here. I do know that good management is crucial and that doesn't mean whoever made being on the HOA board is a manager either. This mirrors our countries woes

This is what happens when non-business savvy condo owners run the Board of Directors, completely oblivious to the consequences of keeping the HOA fees unreasonably low.  It is so prevalent and, you're right, it is pathetic.

Someone is power hungry and I would ask to se the books really carefully

I have seen some pretty hefty special assessments in our area but the sales prices are very different than what you have described but it is certainly not the norm.   

If I am a buyer, I am running not walking away. If it happens once, it can happen again!

HOAs need savvy management and a good group of watchdog owners to keep them lean yet functional.

what a nightmare - hard to figure out how to sell a condo with that as an assessment 

No freaking way.?!!! That is crazy. I did read one of your posts about this over the last week. 

Their reserve accounts may be too low and don't have suficient funds to cover the cost? 

In Florida, there are so many condo's owned investors who stop paying the HOA fees the minute their rental income drops, so special assesments are a necessity.

Eve

When you have not choice but to pay or leave, they will charge what they can get away with.

I can't believe they are assessing $32k . These kind of assessments will hurt the condo resales.

That's pretty shocking stuff, Carla. Seems excessive, on top of mis-management. There are several HOAs here that have been sued by the residents for mis-management issues

The condo budgets are set buy the condo owners through their associations.  If they do not budget enough for their reserves (as many associations don't) , these types of assessment will bite them later on.

well, it sounds like its a Trump deal, UP yours sounds like something he would say? :)