Carol,

I have been till recently in the Real Estate Business for a long time in Montgomery County Md and Naples Fl..  Real Estate is not like it used to be and buyers for the most part are much more educated on so many issues  that impact their choice. 

  One thing that these days educated buyers look for is the HOA financial picture.  Buyers know how to decipher these.  Also, these days there are many buyers who will not look at an HOA under any circumstances. Others consider an HOA Community because they may have sewer and water.  The other thing buyers ask is how many amenities can be used without and extra fee.  Swimming, golf, tennis etc.  Sometime having OLD amenities, is a negative.

Of course location of property is always very important, but in OP these days, I think waterfront is more in demand than golf course lots. Lots backing to parkland or wood land is also desirable.  And yes some want golf course frontage, but usually for the open space and no home directly behind theirs.  And of course some really just want the golf course lot.  But it is not as easy to differentiate all of this.

Going into an older community such as ours is often more of a challenge since some of our physical amenities are as we speak being redone, or need redoing,  and with little history of what they will actually cost or history of success in their endeavor. 

The amenities, these days, are not the main reason people come to ocean pines IMO.  If talking about home values,   It is probably... IMO ...the waterfront homes that can be purchased for a long time low in prices due to the recession. And there are lots of starter homes for families who may not have had the opportunity to purchase a home recently. We are no longer a resort or retirement community. People are also  buying investment properties at these affordable prices.  So I believe we are becoming a more year round community with all ages and financial brackets and homes.  

Therein lies the dilemma.  Unfortunately , partially due to the recession, there is little black and white answers and real estate marketing data is not always able to compare apples and oranges.  There are many newer HOA communities with some limited amenities that are included with the HOA fee and the homes cost is often  much less for a much newer home, so that also has to be put into the mix. 

The GREAT thing about Ocean Pines is that we have it all, and we are like an "island" in the peninsula here.  We have our own Fire , Police  sewer and water, library, shopping and our "restaurant corner here" ,  and all the rest of our community amenities and social structure. 

I think people choose OP , because we are an established community, safe, relatively affordable. Great to raise kids, or retire and  have a good social network of "thousands" of social and service  clubs  

We have award winning schools here in Worcester Co and that is a WONDERFUL amenity. And one thing I can say for certain, in my experience there is no other community that offers so much for the children as does OPA.

We are not perfect but also not particularly measurable in the Real Estate data.  Some don't even care about the amenities or will ever use them, but some will. 

Folks choosing OP, again IMO, either know about us or have heard about us, or are comparing to the beach condos.

FYI, I have friends in NAR, ( National Association of Realtors) who are saying just this, in this down market it is nigh on to impossible to get the accurate information regarding your question.  So much these days goes beyond all that ..and is about price, price, price, buying and selling.  And the world is changing.  What people want in their community these days is not necessarily what they wanted 40 years ago.  We are not the only HOA struggling with these issues.

This discussion seems to be focusing totally on the golf course, but step back and see that our community will not live or die by that.  We are solid community of PEOPLE,  and we will have our bumps but our greatest amenity IN MY OPINION are the owners of OPA, all of us.

And that can't be measured by real estate graphs and stats.

Sharon