Prices didn't drop because ROFR stopped. Prices dropped because the housing market crashed, Wall Street crashed, millions of people lost their jobs and hundreds of DVC contracts were put up for sale.
I remember a time in late '08 - early '09 when The Timeshare Store alone had 250-300 listings. There was no logic in DVC spending millions of dollars to prop-up the value of a product which had no buyers at higher levels.
Economically DVC is like every other timeshare these days. They thrive on the uninformed buyer. As owners we're fortunate that DVC contracts actually maintain SOME resale value. You could go onto eBay now and buy substantial contracts with Bluegreen, Wyndham and many others for a couple hundred bucks. Good resorts...good systems...good contracts. There just isn't enough resale demand for the owners to see any return when it's time to sell.
But those timeshare systems keep building and keep selling.
DVC isn't much different. Between the promo videos on Resort TV, sales kiosks, billboards, bus signs and other forms of advertising, they plant the seed while families are having a "magical" time at the Disney parks. Folks go to the sales pitch and hear about how they can lock-in years of savings with a DVC purchase. Before they know it, they're signing on the dotted line.
Really all of the above is true...it just so happens that there's an even cheaper way of buying which isn't covered in the official sales pitch.
As for ROFR, that may have delayed the inevitable but it would have cost Disney a handsome sum of money. There were just too many contracts and not enough buyers to sustain an artificially high price point.
