The WSJ’s Personal Journal puts rubber to the road for homeowners’ associations, many of which are feeling the heat from increased foreclosures. Take Denver’s Monaco Place, for example:

The association at Monaco Place, a community of single-family homes and condominiums in Denver, is short $250,000 of its $9.3 million annual operating budget. It can’t pay for needed roof and siding repairs to homes. Potholes in the streets haven’t been filled in order to save money to keep electricity running in common areas, says Dee Tyler, CEO of Colorado Association Services, which manages the association. Monaco Place was already suffering from a high rate of foreclosures before the credit crunch hit. In the past three years, about a third of its 193 units have been foreclosed on.

One-third of a community in foreclosure? That’s a lot. You’ll need to read the story to see just how bad things have gotten for HOAs in places like Stockton, California.