Ask a longtime Riverside Gardens homeowner about the neighborhood's HOA and you'll usually get the same two-part answer. There isn't one. And don't forget the pool bill comes due April 1.
Buyers scrolling listings for the roughly 200 homes built between 1963 and 1966 on streets like Buckboard, Stirrup, and Hitching Post see "no HOA" on the listing sheet and read it as a clean number: nothing recurring, nothing to budget for beyond the mortgage. That reading is legally accurate. It's also financially incomplete, and the gap between the two is worth understanding before you write an offer in this stretch of Fort Hunt.
What "No HOA" Actually Describes
Riverside Gardens does have a residents' group. The Riverside Gardens Citizens' Association represents homes on the original development streets, Old Stage, Hackamore, Stirrup, Hitching Post, Buckboard, Stable, Bridle, Sulky, and Masters. Any family maintaining a home in the neighborhood is encouraged to join. That word, encouraged, is the whole story. There's no recorded covenant requiring dues, no lien mechanism, no board with authority to assess a fee against your deed. When a listing says "no HOA," it's referring to this: no legal structure compels you to pay anyone anything just for owning the house.
As far as it goes, that's correct.
The Bill No Listing Sheet Mentions
What the listing sheet doesn't carry is the Riverside Gardens Swim and Tennis Club, a private recreational corporation at 8633 Buckboard Drive that's been running since 1965. It sits on 3.5 acres and includes three pool areas, a main 25-meter pool and a baby pool, two tennis courts, four pickleball courts, a basketball half-court, a playground, a sand volleyball area, and a bathhouse with a snack bar. Members buy a one-time share and then pay annual dues, $825 in 2025, or $975 for a seasonal leased membership, due by April 1 each year.
Membership isn't limited to Riverside Gardens. It's open to residents of Stratford Landing and Plymouth Haven as well, along with adjacent neighborhoods. That detail matters because it tells you the club was never designed as a Riverside Gardens amenity funded through a Riverside Gardens HOA. It's its own institution, self-funded by whoever chooses to join, regardless of which subdivision they technically live in.
Why the Governance and the Recreation Split Apart
Riverside Gardens went up fast, in a single building wave across three years in the mid-1960s. Subdivisions built that way in this era of Fort Hunt often skipped the step of recording a covenant that would have tied a mandatory fee to every deed. Instead, neighbors who wanted a pool built one themselves and ran it as a private club, open to a cluster of surrounding streets rather than gated to one development.
That's the mechanism behind the disconnect buyers keep running into. The civic association on paper looks unrelated to the pool bill that shows up every spring, because it is. One is a voluntary neighborhood group with no fee authority. The other is a private business that happens to be where a large share of neighborhood social life actually happens, from swim team season to summer barbecues to Fourth of July gatherings.
What This Means When You're Comparing Numbers Across Fort Hunt
The 22308 zip code isn't a market where a few hundred dollars a year is nothing. In February 2026, the zip code recorded 14 closed home sales with a median sold price of $1,144,500, up 21 percent from the same month a year earlier. Inventory has stayed tight enough that buyers are already stretching to compete for what's available. Citywide, Alexandria's broader market has moved at a different pace: over the three months ending August 2026, the median sale price across the city was $736,000, up 11.2 percent year over year, with homes taking an average of 40 days to sell. That gap between a fast-moving, low-inventory zip code and a more measured citywide pace is exactly the kind of condition where a buyer relocating from another market, one where recurring community fees are itemized in a disclosure packet at closing, might not think to ask whether Fort Hunt does things the same way.
It doesn't, not uniformly. Some Fort Hunt subdivisions fund amenities through an actual HOA line item that shows up in closing documents. Riverside Gardens funds its version through a club membership that a buyer has to ask about directly, because no disclosure form requires anyone to mention it. Divide the $825 to $975 range across twelve months and you get a modest monthly number, but it's a real one, and it's the kind of number that only shows up if someone tells you to look for it.
A Few Questions Worth Asking Before You Write
A short list, worth raising with the listing agent or seller before you're deep into a contract:
- Does swim club membership transfer with the sale, or does a new owner have to purchase a share separately?
- Is the home's street actually inside the Riverside Gardens Citizens' Association's membership area, since not every nearby street carries the same designation?
- If closing falls after April 1, has that year's club dues already been paid, and would a new owner owe the full amount regardless of closing date?
None of these questions will appear on a standard disclosure form. They're the kind of thing you learn by asking a neighbor, or an agent who already knows to ask.
A Few Direct Answers
Is swim club membership mandatory for Riverside Gardens homeowners? No. Membership is open to residents of Stratford Landing, Riverside Gardens, Plymouth Haven, and adjacent neighborhoods, and joining is a choice, not a deed requirement.
Does the Riverside Gardens Citizens' Association charge dues? It functions as a voluntary civic group that families are encouraged to join. It isn't a fee-collecting HOA and has no authority to assess mandatory charges.
When are swim club dues due each year? By April 1, which matters most for anyone closing on a home in late winter or early spring.
If you're weighing a Riverside Gardens home against another Fort Hunt subdivision this fall, the swim club dues are one line item worth pricing in before an offer goes out, not after the first neighbor mentions pool season. Lauren Kolazas Group walks Fort Hunt buyers through exactly which costs live on the listing sheet and which ones show up every April, so the number you budget for is the number you'll actually pay.
