Depends on how much $$$ you want to spend-invest
We own both, several weeks of timeshare and a vacation home in Summit County Colorado.
The condo in Colorado is an investment that we enjoy and we are thankful that we made this decision. We just purchased the condo in July 2008. We purchased it for what the owners paid for it 10 years ago - basically it was a "steal." It was still a VERY large investment, but we will make a profit in 8-10 years and the condo should pay for it's self with rentals. We have the unit with a property management company that rents the unit when we are not using it - so it produces income to pay for it's holding costs. We may even make some money on the unit - but if it pay's for it's holding costs we are happy. But based on a 3 year rental history against expenses, it did make the prior owners about 5 % per year after taxes on the income - this will vary on your tax bracket. If you are within a certain income bracket, the second home provides some great tax breaks. Not everyone gets to enjoy these deductions. In fact most second home buyers do not get these deductions, but it is worth finding out if you can take these deductions. This is without any mortgage expense added to the calculations. Also we use the condo when we want, for as long as we want and there are not any rules to when or how we use it!
Now the timeshares are not an INVESTMENT, but rather a luxury and we will never make any money on these. They do provide value and we do get use for them, but they will never make us any money.
So, based on your needs you should think about what you goals are for the cash that you will spend. A second home is an investment and in today's market deals abound. If you have the funds, it is a great time to purchase that second home. You will just need to find a great agent that can help you with the calcuations to see if it is the right thing for your family. Based on the number of days you want to spend in one location - it would seem that a second home might make more sense for your situation.
The timeshare scenario will cost much less initially, but the MF add up over time. Our condo holding expenses are around $ 11,000 per year. This includes Keystone resort fees, taxes, gas, electric, cable, telephone - everything excluding the broken dishwasher or other repairs that are needed on occasion.
We have 3 weeks of timeshare and the MF are adding up to around $ 2400.00per year. We do own all 2 bedrooms in Hurricane prone areas, so that is one reason the MF are so high. You can get TS with much lower MF - but when we purchased the timeshares the MF were about half this current cost. The timeshare model requires the MF to increase over time.
I know our condo costs will also increase over time, but we control the rental rates and as costs go up - rental rates go up. Therefore offsetting the increase in costs. Anyway it is a very complex question and you should just go out and look at both. Run the numbers and do not make a quick decision. I suspect this year might be tough for everyone, we have bookings for the condo and currently we have around $ 7200.00 in advance bookings. This is running about 5 % behind last year. So we just reduced our rental rates about 5 %, but I am sure the condo will produce enough income to cover it's holding costs.
We have been following the condo market in Summit County Colorado for about 5 years. We wish we had purchased in Breck about 5 years ago - but we are very happy with our Keystone purchase. We got lucky and were able to find someone who needed out. There are many folks out there like that, it is just a matter of finding one. I do not know about Lake Tahoe, but in Summit County the property that is within the ski areas hold their value very well. You get out away from the mountains and they get softer - but we wanted income, so we needed to stay within the mountain areas.
Anyway - good luck and feel free to send me a PM if you have any other questions.