Yard signs

Why there's no single answer

Search "can an HOA ban yard signs" and you'll find confident answers that don't hold up. There is no federal law and no nationwide rule covering real estate, political, or general yard signs on a homeowner's own lot. Coverage varies by state, and sometimes by the specific type of sign. Your state may protect one category of sign and say nothing about another. The two examples below show how far apart states can land: one guarantees a right to post, the other struck down a ban only because of a state constitutional provision most states don't have. Start with your own state's statute and your CC&Rs, not a rule of thumb.

Two states, two different rules

In Arizona, a state statute voids any covenant or association rule that bans "for sale" or "for lease" signs, and guarantees the owner the right to display at least one industry-standard sign. That is one state's rule, not a national one. Other states regulate real estate signs differently, for example by capping size or number rather than guaranteeing the right outright.

New Jersey took a different question entirely: political signs. In Mazdabrook Commons Homeowners' Ass'n v. Khan, an association's rule banned all residential signs except "For Sale" signs, and the board used it to order a homeowner to remove political campaign signs from his own windows and door. New Jersey's highest court sided with the homeowner, weighing the association's property interest against his speech right.

"the minimal interference with [the association's] private property interest against [the homeowner's] free speech right to post political signs on his own property"

Source: Mazdabrook Commons Homeowners' Ass'n v. Khan, Supreme Court of New Jersey (via Justia)

Outside New Jersey, an HOA is a private, contractual body, not a government actor, so ordinary free speech protections generally do not reach its rules at all. A handful of other states have their own statutory or constitutional protections for political signs; check yours before assuming Mazdabrook's outcome applies to you.

What your board should actually check

Before adopting or enforcing a sign rule: look up your state's statute for real estate sign protections, since some guarantee a right to post and some only cap size or number. Separately check whether your state gives political signs any protection beyond the general rule that HOAs aren't bound by the First Amendment. Then read your own CC&Rs and rules for whatever sign policy already exists, including any size, duration, or number limits on the books. Whatever rule you land on, apply it evenly. A sign rule enforced against one owner's yard but not another's invites a fairness or selective-enforcement fight that has nothing to do with signs at all.