I don't think suburbs are a complete explanation for this though. HOAs are super rare in Canada (outside of apartment buildings and maybe townhouses), and we have just as much suburban sprawl as the U.S.

Based on people mentioning maintaining commons (i.e. building parks, etc.) maybe it's a function of having comparatively less government provided common services in American suburbs? That would fit the stereotype in my head, but I admit I don't have a lot of solid data one way or another.