Has anyone who purchased DVC

[Apps]

Does anyone know the income distribution of DVC owners? I assumed that it was weighted toward the top 15% being such an expensive luxury item (kinda like a luxury car). Also, what is the % of people that finance?

I completely understand the poster that said that those who can afford it, don't obsess over the cost...its kinda like having a boat or really nice car. Money pit

 

[ELMC]

Does anyone know the income distribution of DVC owners? I assumed that it was weighted toward the top 15% being such an expensive luxury item (kinda like a luxury car). Also, what is the % of people that finance?

I completely understand the poster that said that those who can afford it, don't obsess over the cost...its kinda like having a boat or really nice car. Money pit

I think that this is a very good point, and it's also a question that probably won't be answered. The one thing missing from all these posts is perspective. Without it, the advice is not nearly as valuable as it would be if we were aware of the financial background of the person sharing their opinion. The problem, of course, is that nobody is going to say "Hi, I make $x per year and here is my opinion." So in the absence of that, we really need to try to consider the poster's perspective as well as filter what we read through the lens of our own situation.

I will say this. I have read many posts on here where people nonchalantly wrote a check for $20,000 for a resale purchase and I have read posts where people saved and counted every last dollar for a $6,000 resale purchase. These are two very different people with two very different perspectives. My guess is that the advice you get from them would be different. One of the biggest mistakes anyone can make is to follow in the footsteps of someone who is in the other camp, so to speak.

 

[kshark1958]

Another problem with answering this question is where do these people live. Lets just say the top 15 % nation wide low point is 110 thousand. 110 thousand in parts of the midwest goes a heck of a lot further then say in the northeast.

 

[crisi]

Does anyone know the income distribution of DVC owners? I assumed that it was weighted toward the top 15% being such an expensive luxury item (kinda like a luxury car). Also, what is the % of people that finance?

I completely understand the poster that said that those who can afford it, don't obsess over the cost...its kinda like having a boat or really nice car. Money pit

I wouldn't assume there is a really high correlation. Those that have money often have it because they obsess over it. And those that don't often don't have it because they will non challantly write a check for $20k.

 

[Apps]

I think that this is a very good point, and it's also a question that probably won't be answered. The one thing missing from all these posts is perspective. Without it, the advice is not nearly as valuable as it would be if we were aware of the financial background of the person sharing their opinion. The problem, of course, is that nobody is going to say "Hi, I make $x per year and here is my opinion." So in the absence of that, we really need to try to consider the poster's perspective as well as filter what we read through the lens of our own situation.

I will say this. I have read many posts on here where people nonchalantly wrote a check for $20,000 for a resale purchase and I have read posts where people saved and counted every last dollar for a $6,000 resale purchase. These are two very different people with two very different perspectives. My guess is that the advice you get from them would be different. One of the biggest mistakes anyone can make is to follow in the footsteps of someone who is in the other camp, so to speak.

Maybe somebody has a rule of thumb for DVC affordability For cars, its 20% of your take home pay...and this is a required asset for most people. I would think a conservative number should be less than 2% of annual income should be related to MF.

 

[Apps]

I wouldn't assume there is a really high correlation. Those that have money often have it because they obsess over it. And those that don't often don't have it because they will non challantly write a check for $20k.

There are always outliers to the normal distribution curve but most luxury purchases have a well defined demographic of users based on age, income, etc.. I was just wondering if Disney released any demographic info regarding their DVC purchases. I recently Googled this question and found that DVC at Vero has a $124k median income (http://www.city-data.com/neighborhood/Disney-Vacation-Club-at-Vero-Beach-Vero-Beach-FL.html).

Thats a pretty high median income...probably top 15% of the income curve.

 

[Dean]

Ever regretted it?
If so, why?

Just looking for others experiences before commiting


Thanks!

The answer is yes but it's hard to quantify since most are no longer here and the reasons they regret it vary widely. DVC is only reasonable for a subset of people. Those that can afford it (to me that's pay cash and no other consumer debt), go to WDW (or a DVC resort) routinely, value staying on property and have experience doing so and who plan to use the points ONLY at DVC resorts. I'd also be cautious about those targeting weekends.

 

[lovin'fl]

We first bought 200 OKW points via resale in 2006 (in 2012 and 2013 we added HH and AKV points). We lived in NC at the time we first bought and easily drove to WDW for our trips. We liked WDW enough to want to go about 3 times over a 2 year period. I found that staying on property is part of the magic (while DH loved the cheapness of staying at one of the many places in Kissimmee...I over rule that and say onsite is the way to go and DH has since fallen for resorts w/in walking distance to parks). We also have 3 kids and prefer to have a room with a door for us (parents) and a separate area for the kids to sleep in and now that they are teens, we like to have a 2BR villa to separate them a bit and have 2 bathrooms. I also like having the washer and dryer...the kitchen isn't as important. We, therefore, wanted a place we could stay at that was condo-like...booking 2 regular WDW resort rooms would have been expensive and forget us all cramming into 1 regular room (we did it at POR once and it was do-able but not something we'd do frequently or for an extended period of time and not something we'd want to do now that the kids are teens). We have no regrets buying DVC...however...

We moved from NC to MD in 2007 and realized we couldn't just hop in our car and drive to WDW every 8-10 months (we did the drive in the summer of 2008 and didn't think we'd want to do it very often after that). We also could not afford airfare for the 5 of us. So, we wanted to downsize our 200 OKW points. We calculated that we could use 100 points (going every 2-3 years) but discovered that we could not break our contract in half to sell. That would have been perfect, but no dice...so we listed the contract for a while but got no bites. We were kind of stressed about it...I think it was around Nov-Dec of 2008 and we knew the annual dues were coming. We were discussing it with MIL and FIL, who had just began taking annual January trips to WDW and they offered to pay us to use 100 points every year (they now use a bit more because they fell in love with the OKW 1BR villas...should have just kept booking them in studios and they'd never have known...LOL).

So, not only did we keep our OKW contract but we were able to make more trips to WDW from MD than we ever thought we would and we fell into a plan to alternate years with DVC beach trips and WDW trips (the years we do WDW, we buy APs and do 2-3 short trips with them...then the following year we do the beach and save $$ on park passes and flying and dining and all that). We even found that we needed more points and added 2 HH contracts in 2012 (75 points total) and this year we added 100 AKV points and another 50 HH points. We are always in borrowing mode...but we use our points for MIL and FIL every year (and SIL2 for 2 trips). So, no regrets...though I wish we had bought 2 smaller contracts the 1st time instead of the one 200 point contract.

 

[brertoad]

We've only owned our DVC since Sept. 2012. We love it. No regrets now, and I'm pretty sure there won't be any regrets later. We have a good size contract, we are debt free, it is paid for, so the only cost is the MF, and that is manageable. I had thought we would need to add more points, but we are doing good. I actually had to bank points, which we never thought we'd have to do, but I'm very glad that we can bank and borrow.

My only regret is not knowing about it years and years ago. Having it sooner would have increased our quality of life, being able to take yearly vacations would have been great.

I'd rent points out before I would consider selling our contract. Since our resale contract is paid for, this would cover MF if we ever had a financial crisis.

I would like to say that whatever the reason someone sells for, I certainly know there are many people who are very thankful that there are resale contracts available. Count me as one.