State of the Timeshare Industry

Interesting article about the Timeshare Industry in Inside the Gate:

http://www.insidethegate.com/2010/10/state-of-the-industry-2010-the-worst-is-over/

Sales are down 40% from 2007 ($10B to $6B.)

A panel of experts believe the worst is over, but it will take years before things significantly improve.

15% of those taking tours bought a timeshare, and the average price was a little over $16K.

I'm not so optimistic. I believe that we're going to see more developers go bankrupt. If some of the large ones are struggling, some of the smaller ones should be in crisis.

I expect a greater percentage of owners not paying maintenance fees, resulting in increased fees which may in turn further increase the number not paying their fees.

And the resale market has already imploded. Not sure when it will revive.

It is amazing that people are still paying $16K for timeshares that can be bought for far less on the resale market.

Tom

Remember the existing units & owners - us - don't need NEW timeshares. We just need what we already have to survive at reasonable costs.

What happens to developers really doesn't matter to us in fact we'd be best off without them around now IMO.

Developer v. Owners

I agree that the developer's financial situation doesn't directly impact ownership as long as the complete facilities have been constructed.

I got burned when I bought from the developer in 2007. I wish I would have studied the resale market back then.

But I have no plans to sell. So I should just enjoy my weeks.

I did take advantage of the current resale market, and bought another week (and larger unit) for about 10% of the developer's price. Viewed from a "dollar cost average" analysis, I now have two weeks that cost me 55% of the developer's price.

One of the reasons I bought at Woodstone was that the maintenance fee was so low. Unfortunately, it has increased 30% since I bought.

If Dollar Cost Averaging helps you sleep at night...Personally, I just accepted the fact that I perhaps, might have, just maybe, made a financial decision that really didn't completely jive with my normal frugality.

Or, as my Gunny used to say, "That wave has crashed ashore, now what?"

I'm still stun by the casual use of the term "Billions" in relation to total sales...guess I shouldn't be too surprised but, Dang! That's a lot of Weasel work.

I'm Surprised

Frankly, I'm surprised that developer timeshares sales are "only" down 40%.

I would have guessed that total timeshare sales revenue would have been down 70-80%. I would have guessed that sales were down 40% and that prices would have been reduced another 30-40%. I'm wrong.

And the article states the worse is over. Let's hope so.