Surely though, the HOA and all that would likely be baked into a renter's price.

Sure, the same way that the benefits of a fixed mortgage payment are baked into sale prices. The efficient market hypothesis would say that neither renting nor buying should be obviously superior in the long term, because if either was then people would bid up rents/prices until it wasn't.

And you didn't need to go live in a HOA

I pretty much did, unless I wanted to significantly compromise on other factors.

> The efficient market hypothesis would say that neither renting nor buying should be obviously superior in the long term, because if either was then people would bid up rents/prices until it wasn't.

Buying have much higher entry point, need a bunch of cash at start then a ton of paperwork.

It is absolutely possible that local buying market is inflated precisely because the area is so desirable buying to rent is (or was) good investment, but that's rarely is true for a bigger market