A community association manager is usually hired by a homeowners association, condominium association or cooperative to run the community's day-to-day business on behalf of its volunteer board of directors.
Instead of leasing units for a landlord or an owner of rental housing, a CAM manages the common areas and services of a community whose residents own their homes.
This guide explains the work, who employs CAMs, licensing, pay and how to find association management jobs.
What is a community association manager?
A community association manager (CAM) is usually hired by the volunteer board of directors of a homeowners association, condominium association or cooperative to manage the community's common areas and services.
The BLS describes the job exactly that way: these managers are usually hired by an association's volunteer board and supervise the daily affairs and maintenance of its property and facilities.
You will also see the work posted as HOA manager, association manager or condo manager.
BLS's own occupational title list includes Community Association Manager, Condominium Association Manager and Homeowner Association Manager as direct-match titles for the occupation, and O*NET's reported titles include Community Association Manager as well.
The employer is the difference that defines the role.
IREM's framing of the property management field is that managers are employed by real estate owners, either directly or through a management company, and that the type of employer changes the nature of the work.
A community association manager works instead for the board, which is the community's homeowners acting collectively, and the residents own their own homes.
The manager runs the association's business — its shared property and services — rather than the leasing of individual units.
The field is large.
The Foundation for Community Association Research (CAI's research foundation) estimates 373,000 community associations in the United States in 2025, covering 29.6 million housing units and 78.1 million residents, and estimates 60,000 to 65,000 community association managers.
Homeowners associations make up about 58 to 63 percent of associations, condominium communities about 35 to 40 percent and cooperatives about 2 to 4 percent, and CAI's research foundation says 35.2 percent of U.S. housing is in a community association.
What does an HOA manager do?
The core of the job is running the association's daily affairs so the volunteer board can govern.
O*NET lists a task that captures the board-facing half of the work: meet with boards of directors and committees to discuss and resolve legal and environmental issues or disputes between neighbors.
Around those board meetings sit the occupation's typical duties.
BLS's list includes inspecting facilities, arranging repairs, contracting for services, settling complaints, preparing budgets and financial reports, and keeping records — for a community association manager, duties that attach to the association's common areas and services rather than to leased units.
The money involved is significant.
Community associations collected an estimated $124.2 billion in assessments from homeowners in 2025, and CAI's research foundation counts those assessments among the costs that fund professional management services.
The hours are not always nine to five.
BLS says most property managers work full time but may need to respond to emergencies off duty or attend evening meetings with residents, owners or association boards, and some are required to live onsite.
For a community association manager, the evening board meeting is the concrete case: association boards are volunteers, so they meet when their own workdays end.
A handful of communities are big enough to be a manager's whole job on site.
CAI's research foundation counts 7,000 to 9,000 large-scale associations, defined as meeting two of three tests: a single contiguous community with a general manager, at least 1,000 lots or homes, and an annual budget of at least $2 million.
Portfolio vs on-site community association managers
Community association management jobs come in two shapes.
An on-site manager works for a single community full time.
A portfolio manager works for a management company and supports several communities, splitting the week between them.
Both shapes sit inside the field's own workforce estimates.
CAI's research foundation estimates 60,000 to 65,000 community association managers in the U.S., and its definition covers both ends: on-site managers and those who provide part-time support to a number of communities.
The wider industry employment estimate is 105,000 to 110,000 — the foundation's count of individuals employed by management companies and onsite for associations with staff, a wider group than the managers alone.
Where a job lands between the two shapes follows the community.
Large-scale associations — the 7,000 to 9,000 communities CAI's research foundation counts, whose definition includes a single contiguous community with a general manager — are the natural on-site employers.
We found no published average in CAI's research for how many communities one portfolio manager can carry; it varies with the size of each association and the level of service the board buys.
Who employs CAMs: management companies vs self-managed associations
Two employer types split the field.
CAI's research foundation estimates 9,000 to 10,000 community association management companies in the United States; these firms employ the portfolio managers described above.
Against that, CAI's research foundation estimates 30 to 40 percent of community associations are self-managed, meaning no professional manager or management company: the volunteer board runs the community itself, so those associations are not employers of professional managers.
BLS industry data covers the whole manager occupation, not CAMs alone, so label it that way.
In 2025, 56 percent of property, real estate and community association managers worked in the real estate industry, 31 percent were self-employed and 2 percent worked for religious, grantmaking, civic, professional and similar organizations.
Geography matters for the job search.
The states with the most community associations in 2025 were California (51,700), Florida (50,600) and Texas (23,500), per the Foundation for Community Association Research.
Do you need a license to be a CAM?
Licensing is state law, and the honest national answer is: it depends on the state.
BLS's occupational overview states that in most states property managers must have a property management license or a real estate broker's license, and that in some states community association managers also need a real estate license.
That is a broad statement about the occupation as a whole.
It does not describe any single state, and exemptions turn on the duties you perform and who employs you, not on a job title.
Industry credentials are a separate thing from a license.
The CMCA (Certified Manager of Community Associations) is awarded by CAMICB, the Community Association Managers International Certification Board, and is described as an entry-level credential for HOA, condominium and cooperative managers.
A credential is not a license: IREM's CPM designation, for example, is a private designation, and IREM requires CPM graduates to hold an active real estate license only if one is required for their position in their state.
Earning a credential demonstrates training; it is not on its own permission to manage where a state requires one.
On education, two federal sources disagree and both are worth knowing.
BLS lists a high school diploma or equivalent as the typical entry-level education for the occupation, with less than 5 years of related work experience in a related occupation and short-term on-the-job training.
O*NET's survey respondents lean more formal: 48 percent said a bachelor's degree is required, 22 percent an associate's degree and 15 percent some college.
BLS adds an employer-side nuance: a high school diploma is typically required for onsite property management positions, while employers may prefer to hire college graduates for commercial management positions related to overseeing a property's finances or contracts.
Neither source names a single national education requirement.
Career information, not legal, tax or licensing advice. License and exemption rules are state law; confirm the current requirements with your state real estate commission, or with the agency that licenses community association managers in your state, before you act on them.
Verify licensing where you work
How much do HOA managers make?
The pay figures cover one series: property, real estate and community association managers (SOC 11-9141).
Community Association Manager, Condominium Association Manager and Homeowner Association Manager are direct-match titles inside that single occupation, alongside Apartment Manager and Property Manager, so one wage series covers them all.
In May 2025 the median annual wage for that occupation was $69,990, or $33.65 an hour.
The lowest-paid 10 percent earned less than $41,010 and the highest-paid 10 percent earned more than $139,680.
By industry, BLS reports a May 2025 median of $73,620 in religious, grantmaking, civic, professional and similar organizations and $64,290 in real estate.
BLS does not break out where community association managers sit inside those industry groups, so read those figures as occupation-wide.
The full wage tables by state are on our community association manager salary page.
Find community association manager jobs
Association management companies employ the portfolio roles — CAI's research foundation estimates 9,000 to 10,000 of them in the U.S. — alongside on-site roles at associations large enough to carry their own staff.
BLS projects about 36,900 openings a year for the occupation over 2025 to 2035, mostly from replacing workers who change occupations or retire, on top of 4 percent employment growth over the decade.
The two employment counts BLS publishes measure different things and should not be mixed.
BLS counts 460,400 jobs across the occupation in 2025, a figure that includes self-employed managers.
The OEWS survey, which counts wage-and-salary jobs only, records 311,180.
Community association managers are one slice of both numbers, alongside apartment, commercial and regional managers.
When you are ready to look, our community association manager jobs page lists openings from apartment operators, third-party management firms, HOA management companies and commercial landlords.
Pair it with the salary page above when you evaluate an offer, and check your state's license requirement before you apply.