Best Economical DVC Resort to Purchase: Fall 2019
At DVC Resale Market, we like to keep an economic Disney Vacation Club (DVC) Resort ranking maintained for our clients as prices, dues, resorts and Disney can change over time. We started this ranking in the Fall of 2014, and this blog represents our 11th in the series: Fall 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Spring 2016, Fall 2016, Spring 2017, Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, and Spring 2019.
The chart below provides a long-term economic ranking of Disney Vacation Club resorts to own. The long-term value considers price, dues and years remaining on the deed to ultimately get to a price per point per year. This ranking may provide directional information in choosing a resort to own, especially for those Members or potential New Members who are less concerned about home resort priority and more focused on economic savings.
Polynesian Continues to Climb in the Rankings
Polynesian first entered the Best Economical Resort to Own rankings at #9 of 14 in 2015, and now has ascended to #2 of 15.
Historical Economic Ranking for Owning Polynesian
| Dates | Ranking |
| Fall 2015 | # 9 |
| Spring 2016 | # 7 |
| Fall 2016 | # 9 |
| Spring 2017 | # 7 |
| Fall 2017 | # 5 |
| Spring 2018 | # 4 |
| Fall 2018 | # 3 |
| Spring 2019 | # 4 |
| Fall 2019 | # 2 |
Two strong factors are contributing to Polynesian’s rise in these rankings: 1. Low Increases in Dues 2. Lack of Price Appreciation.
First, Polynesian has only experienced modest annual dues increases. Since inception, the Polynesian dues have only increased on average less than 3% per year. Most DVC Resorts’ average yearly increase for dues since inception are closer to 4%.
Second, while the resale prices of many DVC Resorts have climbed since 2015, Polynesian’s resale price per point has remained roughly stagnant. In fact, outside of Polynesian, all Walt Disney World (WDW) based DVC Resorts have increased 20% or more in resale price since 2015.
Arguably, one of the main contributing factors for Polynesian’s price staying stationary is simply lack of room mix. Given Polynesian’s stellar location, lengthy amount of years left on the deed and historic popularity, there would be good reason Polynesian’s price should be higher. Perhaps a price competing with the Grand Floridian for the #1 spot at WDW. However, unlike Grand Floridian, Polynesian only has 2 room types, and unless you are preparing to use approximately 1,000 points for 1 week at a Bungalow, it really has just 1 room option, a studio.
And while Polynesian has climbed very high in the economic rankings, it is still behind the perennial #1 resort to own for the long term when it comes to the economics of owning, Saratoga Springs.
DVC Resort Economical Rankings: Fall 2019
| Resort | Avg. Cost Per Pt. | Years Left | Cost Per Pt. Per Year from Price | 2020 Proposed Dues | Total Cost Per Pt. Per Year | Rank: Spring 2019 | Rank: Fall 2019 | Rank Change |
| Saratoga Springs | $103 | 35 | $2.94 | $6.77 | $9.71 | 1 | 1 | — |
| Polynesian | $149 | 47 | $3.17 | $6.79 | $9.96 | 4 | 2 | +2 |
| Bay Lake Tower | $145 | 41 | $3.54 | $6.58 | $10.12 | 2 | 3 | -1 |
| Aulani* | $94 | 43 | $2.19 | $8.33 | $10.52 | 6 | 4 | +2 |
| Grand Floridian | $179 | 45 | $3.98 | $6.56 | $10.54 | 3 | 5 | -2 |
| Copper Creek | $152 | 49 | $3.10 | $7.45 | $10.55 | 8 | 6 | +2 |
| Animal Kingdom | $110 | 38 | $2.89 | $7.67 | $10.56 | 7 | 7 | — |
| Old Key West (Extended) | $113 | 38 | $2.97 | $7.84 | $10.81 | 5 | 8 | -3 |
| Grand Californian | $185 | 41 | $4.51 | $6.60 | $11.11 | 9 | 9 | — |
| Boulder Ridge | $102 | 23 | $4.43 | $7.78 | $12.21 | 10 | 10 | — |
| Old Key West | $106 | 23 | $4.61 | $7.84 | $12.45 | 11 | 11 | — |
| Hilton Head | $79 | 23 | $3.43 | $9.10 | $12.53 | 12 | 12 | — |
| Boardwalk | $134 | 23 | $5.83 | $7.37 | $13.20 | 14 | 13 | +1 |
| Vero Beach** | $77 | 23 | $3.35 | $10.13 | $13.48 | 13 | 14 | -1 |
| Beach Club | $155 | 23 | $6.74 | $7.06 | $13.80 | 15 | 15 | — |
| – Average cost per point based on Average DVC Resale Selling Prices for October 2019 | ||||||||
| – *Aulani with subsidized dues are $8.45 for a total cost per pt. per year (dues for 2019 are $6.26/pt.) | ||||||||
| – **Vero Beach with subsidized dues are $11.35 for a total cost per pt. per year (dues for 2019 are $8.00/pt.) | ||||||||
Additionally, this cost per point per year from the chart above can be used to help determine what a DVC Member theoretically pays for a Disney Vacation Club Villa. For example, let’s say you purchased a Boardwalk contract and were going to stay at Boardwalk in a standard view studio for one night on a weekday in Choice Season (during the Food & Wine Festival). The number of points needed for that one night would be 10, and the estimated cost per point per year according to the chart above would be $13.00. So multiply the number of points needed by the cost per point and the result is 10 x $13.00 or $130/night.
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Comments
The 3 Best value resales are Baylake , Poly and GF. The reasoning is that these resorts will be available until 2066 as opposed to 2042 and their dues are small. Lets say you buy OKW at 90 Pt ; in 22 years it has zero value. In 2042 your investment in GF ,Poly or Baylake may have increased. You can probably sell these 3 for a profit in 2042 as opposed to having nothing of value at these other resorts. this means you were using points for 22 years for the price of the Annual dues.
Not understanding why the Old Key West Resorts expiring 2042 are frowned upon. Some may see the earlier expiration as a plus. I.e. 15 years less of vacation, yes, but also 15 years less of dues. Assuming the market discounts this theory, shouldn’t the 2042 expiry contracts be valued at half their 2057 counterparts, considering its roughly half the useful life of those 2057 contracts?
I really like this report that you do. I was thinking that it might be helpful to work another dimension into the cost of ownership. That is, a consideration of the points chart. When we bought at SSR, that was an important consideration for us. The newer resorts like the Polynesian require a lot more points for the same accommodations than ones like SSR, OKW and BWV.
Marty, excellent point. The amount of points a resort requires can significantly change the value as well. Because of this in the past we have looked at a blog dedicated to this very topic: https://www.dvcresalemarket.com/blog/best-disney-world-resorts-for-stretching-your-dvc-points/
Since, outside of Riviera on resale, you can own a DVC Resort but stay at other DVC Resorts we’ve keep the two blogs separate, where one blog, “Best Economical Resort to Purchase” focuses on ownership regardless of where you use the points, and the other blog focuses on just where you use the points.
I would like to see this reposted with the proposed 2020 resort fees that were released today. This will completely scramble your ordering. Also include Riviera in your ranking.
Drew, once we have confirmation on 2020 dues, this list will be updated, and yes, to your point, we do expect some changes with 2020 annual dues. We have not included Riviera in the rankings as there is not a large enough sample size of resales to date to provide an accurate direction. Likely, Riviera will have a much larger sample size when we do our Spring 2020 Rankings, and it will be included in the mix.