Now, even the resale proposition is lousier. It takes a lot longer to break even, savings each year relative to rental values are smaller, and the uncertainty with MF increases is much greater, especially with the rise of defaults. Again - ask yourself how much of what you own today would you buy again today (in the same manner originally acquired) at today's prices and MFs?
To answer the question you posed, if we were making the same decision today, we would buy exactly what we own now with one exception - we would no longer buy our week at Barony on Hilton Head because we now own our own beach condo on the island. The truth is however, without that Barony ownership, we likely would have never truly fallen in love with HHI and bought that condo. We now elect the Barony week as a source of Abound points.
The value for any one owner depends on how they use their ownership. For us, we compare our timeshare costs against the alternatives we would likely use. If we didn't own our Hawaii weeks, we would probably be paying for Marriott, Hilton, or Hyatt level hotels in either Hawaii, or the Caribbean, or other warm weather destinations. We don't do AirBnB or VRBO or other person-to-person rentals, so we'd be paying $1000/night for ocean-oriented resorts like we had to do a year ago when we wanted to go to the Caymans. I haven't done an analysis because I don't know how I would find the previous year hotel costs, but it feels anecdotally to me that rates at prime time resort-type hotels in places like Hawaii and the Caribbean have risen even more than timeshare maintenance fees, so it feels like the value proposition is still very much intact for us.
And speaking of developer point purchases, I just don't see the value at all anymore - points at $16-$17 with MFs of $0.80 that translates to $100K+ and $5000+ in annual MFs for higher demand weeks in prime locations with prime views (over 7000 points for a 2BR on Maui or Marco Island, for example). These days, that $100K would earn you $5000 more interest annually if you kept it in the bank.
I tend to agree that developer points purchases today seem very hard to justify from a purely financial analysis perspective in the quantities that are needed to travel how and where we travel. But that wasn't the OP's original question. The question originally posed was have the increases in maintenance fees negatively impacted the value you feel you get from your timeshares that you already own? My answer is a solid "No, the increases have not impacted the value we get. Hotel costs are rising rapidly too."
An opportunity cost analysis can be insightful, but in the final analysis, before someone spends $100k, or even $30k, on a luxury item - be it a luxury car, a boat, a vacation home, a luxury cruise, or a timeshare - they should have their short, medium, and long term saving, investment, and retirement goals fully and comfortably met. If those are all met, I think it's fine to question and assess whether that $100k is better spent on a timeshare, a boat, the down payment on a vacation home, or some other luxury item, but just comparing it to $5000 in interest ignores the broader enjoyment value that discretionary expenditures can provide in your life. If you don't need an extra $5000 in interest, go spend that $100k on something that provides you enjoyment!
That's no longer a product affordable to the average middle-class family making $75K/year like what they target for the type of presentations required to sell this.
During their 2019 Investor Day presentation they said that MVC owners had a median family income of $130,000 and a median net worth of $1.5 million. That's most certainly higher today. They did not disclose an owner profile in their 2022 Investor Day.
). Our hotel in Florence, Italy this past summer was over $800 per night as well.
