The premise for the HOA to do this is that it's better for occupants to report problems for professional remediation, rather than to DIY or neglect them until it becomes worse for someone else in the building.
It depends a bit on where you live, but that's typically not true. For a condo, the owners are responsible for interior maintenance (for example, plumbing issues within the unit, as opposed to plumbing issues within the walls).
I just sold a house in Vancouver after living in it for over a decade. The amortized cost of maintenance was less than 100 CAD/mo; and that included new quartz counters, a new roof, new hot water tanks, a whole yard remodel, new flooring, and so on.
What the hell are they burning nearly a grand USD per month per suite on?
I also find elevators to add a decent amount to the overhead
Not everyone is fit for condo living, but those who do prefer to have a building manager full time on site they can talk to. They also want amenities, a gym or even a pool (which means paying a lifeguard), a rooftop or shared working space. And trust me the condo owners aren't going to go and mop that rooftop or gym, they're going to need even more employees to do that
This is probably the meat of the cost.
When I demo'd the floors the labour cost was my own time; rather than the market rate.
The roof only hit me back about 5k.
Flooring was only about 3k, I did cheap laminate because carpet gives me allergies and I have kids.
People are very bad at working out total cost of ownership, but it could work if the prices were very low and much of the labor was done by the owner.
Is labour just that much more expensive in the USA?