CarolMN said:
You didn't ask for any advice, so I'll only say that if you are considering a purchase, buy where you want to stay - saving a few dollars is less important than being happy with your purchase. The 11 month home resort booking advantage is more valuable than it may seem - especially if you buy off site and really want to stay mostly on site.
The 11 month booking window is critical if ALL of the following are true - 1) that you usually have the ability to schedule vacations more than seven months in advance (not everyone does), 2) that you really
care which resort you will visit, and 3) that you are planning on visiting during busy
DVC seasons, which are not necessarily the busiest WDW seasons.
If you are one of those people who can't usually book vacations more than seven months out, the 11 month window means nothing to you. And at seven months, your points have exactly the same booking rights
at my home resort that my points have. At seven months, "points is points."
If you would like to visit during the Food and Wine Festival most years, and you really want to stay at BWV or BCV (AND you can book more than 7 months out), then, by all means, buy one of those.
The same would be true if you want to visit HHI during the very busy summer months -- buy HHI. We tend to focus a lot on busy times at WDW, but HHI and Vero both are very difficult to get in the summer for obvious reasons.
But if you plan on visiting WDW in a slow season and don't particularly care where you stay, buy points wherever you want.
It is true that as DVC adds thousands of new members, certain times of the year will get even more difficult at the smaller resorts like BCV and VWL. On the other hand, the increased membership can only come from increased capacity, so for those who like to experience different resorts, they will find it easier to get
something inside seven months.
Vero:
There hasn't been much discussion of this recently, but a few months ago a lot of people were expressing concern that the "other shoe" had not yet dropped on Vero from the hurricane damage last year. Vero's dues are already the highest in DVC, and there was concern that they might go up even more as a result of increased insurance costs due to the storm losses. That is probably part of the reason for lower prices, although I think Vero has probably always been a little lower on resale than other resorts.