Proposed 2018 DVC Annual Dues and its Economic Impact to Owning DVC
The proposed 2018 budgets and annual dues have been posted by Disney Vacation Club (DVC). The budgets and dues will go for approval at the Board of Directors Meeting preceding the DVC Annual Member Meeting on Thursday, December 7th (Updated: were approved on Dec. 7th).
DVC annual dues consist of property taxes as well as the cost to maintain the property. As a DVC owner, you pay annual dues based on the home resort you purchase.
Proposed 2018 DVC Annual Dues
The proposed 2018 DVC annual dues are in the chart below. The two highest proposed percentage increases were non-Disney World properties, Aulani at 7.2% and Hilton Head at 6.1%. Despite actually having a proposed decrease, Copper Creek’s dues still remain the highest of all WDW properties at $7.26/pt.
Resort | 2017 Annual Dues | Proposed 2018 Dues | Percentage Change |
Animal Kingdom | $6.59 | $6.76 | 2.6% |
Aulani | $7.03 | $7.54 | 7.2% |
Aulani (Subsidized) | $5.28 | $5.66 | 7.2% |
Bay Lake Tower | $5.62 | $5.92 | 5.3% |
Beach Club | $6.27 | $6.44 | 2.7% |
Boardwalk | $6.47 | $6.55 | 1.2% |
Boulder Ridge | $6.54 | $6.93 | 5.9% |
Copper Creek | $7.33 | $7.26 | -0.9% |
Grand Californian | $5.61 | $5.88 | 4.9% |
Grand Floridian | $5.90 | $6.13 | 4.0% |
Hilton Head | $7.27 | $7.72 | 6.1% |
Old Key West | $6.41 | $6.72 | 5.0% |
Polynesian | $6.14 | $6.20 | 1.1% |
Saratoga Springs | $5.60 | $5.86 | 4.5% |
Vero Beach | $8.11 | $8.53 | 5.2% |
Economic Impact of Owning
If the proposals are approved, outside of an Aulani contract with subsidized dues, Saratoga Springs will have the lowest annual dues in the DVC network for a 2nd year in a row, and will remain as the top projected economical DVC resort to own for the long term.
The chart below provides an economic ranking all of the Disney Vacation Club properties to own when considering the proposed 2018 annual dues. The last few columns compare the rank changes caused because of the proposed 2018 annual dues.
Notable changes in the rankings due to the 2018 proposed dues include:
- Polynesian passing Grand Floridian, which was mainly attributed to Polynesian experiencing only a minor increase in dues of 1.1%
- Aulani dipping under Grand Californian as Aulani dues increase 7.2%.
Resort | Avg. Cost Per Pt. | Years Left | Cost Per Pt. Per Year from Price | Proposed 2018 Dues Per Pt. | Total Cost Per Pt. Per Year | Rank: With 2017 Dues | Rank: With Proposed 2018 Dues | Rank Change |
Saratoga Springs | $98 | 37 | $2.65 | $5.86 | $8.51 | 1 | 1 | — |
Bay Lake Tower | $137 | 43 | $3.19 | $5.92 | $9.11 | 2 | 2 | — |
Old Key West (Extended) | $97 | 40 | $2.43 | $6.72 | $9.15 | 3 | 3 | — |
Polynesian | $145 | 49 | $2.96 | $6.20 | $9.16 | 5 | 4 | +1 |
Grand Floridian | $145 | 47 | $3.09 | $6.13 | $9.22 | 4 | 5 | -1 |
Animal Kingdom | $104 | 40 | $2.60 | $6.76 | $9.36 | 6 | 6 | — |
Grand Californian | $162 | 43 | $3.77 | $5.88 | $9.65 | 8 | 7 | +1 |
Aulani | $100 | 45 | $2.22 | $7.54 | $9.76 | 7 | 8 | -1 |
Old Key West | $87 | 25 | $3.48 | $6.72 | $10.20 | 9 | 9 | — |
Boulder Ridge | $89 | 25 | $3.56 | $6.93 | $10.49 | 10 | 10 | — |
Hilton Head | $71 | 25 | $2.84 | $7.72 | $10.56 | 11 | 11 | — |
Vero Beach | $68 | 25 | $2.72 | $8.53 | $11.25 | 12 | 12 | — |
Boardwalk | $118 | 25 | $4.72 | $6.55 | $11.27 | 13 | 13 | — |
Beach Club | $131 | 25 | $5.24 | $6.44 | $11.68 | 14 | 14 | — |
– Average cost per point based on average asking price on disneydvcresale.com September ’17 | ||||||||
– Aulani with subsidized dues would be at $7.88 for a total cost per pt. per year |
Comments
As a retired actuary, I feel compelled to point out that your analysis ignores the time value of money, in other words interest, which explains why people might be drawn to the lower purchase prices regardless of the annual dues levels. Since the dues rise annually, it is appropriate to use the current value today for comparison but the lump sums need to be divided by present value factors for an annual payment using a reasonable interest rate, say 3%, over the remaining period rather than just number of remaining years for a more valid comparison (the most appropriate interest rate would probably be the average percentage increase in dues over the last 5 years). This assumes people intend to stay in for the entire remaining period, whereas anyone dropping out early would give even more weight to the lower initial cost. Anyway, here are a few results under this approach:
Saratoga Springs: initial cost/point $98, 37 years, pv factor 22.17, per year pt value 4.42, 2018 dues 5.86, total $10.28
Bay Lake Tower: initial cost/point $137, 43 years, pv factor 23.98, per year pt value 5.71, 2018 dues 5.92, total $11.63
Hilton Head: initial cost/point $71, 25 years, pv factor 17.41, per year pt value 4.07, 2018 dues 7.72, total $11.79
This approach could change the ranking significantly, depending on the interest rate is used.
We are looking at Disney vacation club since we have three children we need at least 250 points we were interested in the wilderness Lodge. The dues there I was told our $1000 a month
Sandra, dues are based on the amount of points you own and the location they are owned at. If you own 250 points at Boulder Ridge (Wilderness) your costs would be approximately $1,830 for 2019, and if you own at Copper Creek (Wilderness) your costs would be approximately $1,858 for 2019. For more details on annual dues, please see: https://www.dvcresalemarket.com/buying/annual-dues/
Thanks Nick. I enjoy your blog and the analysis you provide.
I applied the Net present value calculations to several listings on offer out there (-@Larry I used 3% for inflation on dues and 5% on the opportunity cost of buying the contract) as I’m in the market for a contract and I came to the same conclusions as you Nick – that Saratoga is the best value resort and that Hilton Head and Vero are very expensive in comparison to SSR. So IMHO the calculations you have done Nick are a good enough approximation to how the rankings sit.
Every person doing an NPV analysis is going to come up with a slightly different ranking but I think your approach Nick, in the main, is about right.
Ecco, thank you for the feedback, and I’m glad you found the blog beneficial.
And hopefully, we can assist you with your DVC purchase. If you have any questions, please let us know.
Larry, you bring up a very fair point that this analysis does not take into account assumptions of time value of money or inflation. Certainly, to your point we could do that, although, it does begin to raise additional questions, for example the average increase at Hilton Head since inception for dues has been 6.8% where it has been 3.8% for Old Key West, certainly bringing into question using the same inflationary rate for both when time has shown that can be very different. And if we use different rates for different resorts that can be argued that just because historically that was the case, there is no guarantee of future increases.
Additionally, when looking at time value of money, that can be very different for different people, some may have investments opportunities that are very different than others. Meaning for some, a lower initial costs could be more appealing and vice versa.
Leading to my overall point, that this analysis is a quick glance of value, and while it can get much more in depth, more assumptions would likely be needed. Those assumptions could be debated and could change based on what you believe and what options you may have, at some point a more customized approach may be in order, and that is where our agents are here to assist. Thank you for your feedback Larry.
Why does Aulani have two different listings for dues?
Janice, if an Aulani contract was purchased prior to July 5th, 2011 the annual dues are subsidized by DVC until the deed expiration in 2062. The reason for this is that DVC’s projections of what the annual dues were going to be during the pre-sale of Aulani were well short of what they needed to be. So, for those Members that had already purchased, DVC wanted to honor the lower dues estimate for them.
What does the ‘years left’ column mean exactly?
Lisa, it is referring to years left until the deed expires. For more information on DVC deed expiration dates, please see: https://www.dvcresalemarket.com/buying/dvc-deed-expirations/
No Wildnerness lodge?
Craig, yes Wilderness Lodge is on the list. It is listed as “Boulder Ridge” and “Copper Creek”. They are listed separately as they carry different deed expiration dates and annual dues.
Where is Copper Creek on the lower chart?
Robert – great observation. Copper Creek is not on there as it was just entering the resale market when these prices were pulled in September. However, we will be publishing an updated chart in the next couple of months that will add Copper Creek as a few have now entered the resale market.
I wanted to know lets say your owned 100 points at AK and 250 points at SS could they be combined? I know this is off the topic, but I didn’t see any references as to how that could work and how does it effect priority reservations?
Gary, thanks for the question. Yes, they can be combined at the 7 month reservation window. However, they cannot be combined for the 7-11 Month Home Resort Priority booking window.
no ranking for copper creek
Rajeev, true observation. We will include it once more of the Copper Creek listings enter the resale market so there is a decent sample size. If you were to use the direct pricing, it would be ranked #12.