Vero Beach resale prices

[MarkC]

I was just looking on line at The Timeshare Store's listings of DVC properties. I noticed some of the listings at Vero Beach were down to $40 per point. I know their annual fees are a little higher and I know they had the use change rules for resales, but that seems like a real bargain. You can still choose to stay somewhere else as long as you're not choosing Christman, Easter, etc.

Does anyone have a good reason why those prices are so low?

[Basket Mommy]

I can't explain why they're so low, but I know that HHI and VBR are consistently the lowest per point on the resale market. We bought all 350 of our points at HHI for that reason. The savings per point makes the higher annual maintenance fees worth it, IMO. The dues aren't really that much worse than buying WDW resort points. We have never had a problem booking what we want at WDW, but we always travel during value seasons. As far as not being able to use your resale points on cruises or anything besides WDW resorts, HHI and VBR, I don't see that as a big deal. It costs so very many points to cruise or do the Adventures trips that I would most likely just pay outright for those. It would take more than 3 years' worth of points for us to do anything but WDW or DL anyway. I don't see the new rules as a problem for us. If you want points, I say snap up those $40 points before they're gone!

[Plex]

I did a lot of number crunching on this when I was thinking about purchasing. It definitely makes a huge difference.

On average, annual dues at $5 per point. Vero is $6.78. If you're buying 160 points, that's going to cost you an extra $280 per year. Over the 50-year life of the ownership, you'll be spending an additional $14,000 just in annual dues, and that's before taking into account that the annual dues go up every year. In a nutshell, for all the extra money that you spend on annual dues, you could buy a whole lot more points elsewhere.

In comparison to Saratoga Springs, you're saving about $25 per point on the purchase by going with Vero, or $4,000. Saratoga's annual dues are also below average. Financing a purchase definitely makes it less of a bargain to buy a higher value property.

Hilton Head isn't quite as bad, but still not really the greatest value. After lots of number-crunching, I really think that Saratoga is the best value available right now. Cost-per-point-per-year is currently lowest there. When you weigh-out all of the different properties like this, they actually all come out pretty close to each other, with a few that are definitely better than others.

But that's really only taking into consideration one standpoint on the value. I think in general HHI and Vero aren't good deals. It seems like you're getting a bargain because of the low buy-in, but the differences in annual dues really make other choices much more valuable. If you're going to be staying at WDW and you're willing to not have your home resort at the locations you want to stay in, then Saratoga is a much better bet. It's one of the cheapest to purchase by point, and has one of the lowest annual dues. It's also the largest of the DVC properties, so finding exactly what you want (number of points, use year, how many points banked, etc) is MUCH easier!

Hopefully that post just made sense!

[MinnieMommie]

Plex has given a very good idea on the cost savings between price per point and annual dues. DH has always come up with the same analysis when I point out the low price per point at Vero. :mickey:

[Plex]

You got me thinking, so I just did a little number crunching again. Pretty basic analysis, but here's what I've got for you:

If you average out cost per point per year ((price X # of points)/years remaining) + (dues X points)), right now the best deals are BLT (about $950 per year) and Grand Californian (about $945 per year) with SSR in a close third (about $965 per year). Alone in last place - Vero (about $1315 per year!!!).

Much to my surprise, 2nd to last place isn't HHI... Right now that honor goes to BCV, with Boardwalk not far behind!!! I was pretty surprised by this one. It looks like HHI isn't quite as bad of a deal as Vero, but it's still not so hot.

So strictly on that basis, BLT and GC are the best, however SSR has a MUCH lower buy-in price.

Please note that this analysis doesn't take into account the annual increases in dues. When I was doing my initial research, I spoke with someone at DVC about the annual increases (actually requested someone higher level than the usual operator that picks up for questions) and they told me that they average about 3% per year. That would indicate to me that the higher your starting annual dues are, the worse the value picture gets over time.

This also doesn't take into account financing considerations. If you're taking out a loan for this, the scenarios can change dramatically considering just how high interest rates are on these things. (I was quoted around 14% when I was looking!!!) The additional cost of interest from the additional principal on the loan can actually even out the difference in price an make Vero more attractive, or even possibly a slightly better deal than some. That piece is a little more sitiuation-specific, so you'd probably need some additional math to make sure that it works out for you.

I'm not going to even bring up opportunity cost. That will just cause headaches, and Disney is supposed to be about fun! :secret:

[MinnieMommie]

One more thing: When looking at best value I also consider the number of years left on the contract ( when the contract will expire). Big differences here. Something else to consider when looking at the overall cost.

[greengeen]

40-50 years of inflation-indexed membership dues far outweigh the initial contract price, if you do the math, and that makes Vero Beach the worst deal available! I'd also worry about hurricanes if I "owned" a beach-front timeshare. Just not worth it.

[diz_girl]

Although HHI has higher dues, if you want to vacation there in the summer you should consider buying there. In the summertime, the 7 month/11 month window is important at HHI. That factor is less important at VB.