July 2011 saw a drop in direct sales for the nine Disney Vacaton Club (DVC) resorts for which point sales can be tracked. 212,991 points were sold in July, 16.3% less points than the previous month. Although such a drop in sales may appear significant, it is not unusual. It is the eighth time in the last 12 months that DVC monthly sales have fluctuated, up or down, by more than 15% from the previous month.
The drop in sales in July is mostly attributable to a decline in sales at Bay Lake Tower at Disney's Contemporary Resort. 88,855 Bay Lake Tower points were sold in July, its lowest monthly point total since February 2010.
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The sales data includes all seven Disney Vacation Club resorts at Walt Disney World, as well as Disney’s Vero Beach Resort and Disney’s Hilton Head Island Resort. Point sales data is not available for the Villas at Disney’s Grand California Hotel or for Aulani, a Disney Resort and Spa. The data is compiled from deeds filed by Disney Vacation Development (DVD) and recorded with the Orange County (FL) Comptroller, the Indian River County (FL) Clerk of Court, and the Beaufort County (SC) Register of Deeds.
Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort - In early July 2011 Disney Vacation Development made some changes in Bay Lake Tower's pricing, raising its base price to $140 a point. Perhaps because of these changes, direct sales dropped about 58,000 points compared to the previous month. In late July DVD announced it was raising Bay Lake Tower's base price another $10 to $150 a point, which should cause another drop in sales in the coming months.As of July 31, 2011, 90.06% of Bay Lake Tower's total points have been sold. This percentage reflects 38,367 points that DVD has reacquired through foreclosure proceedings, exercising its Right of First Refusal on deeds sold on the resale market, and other buybacks.
DVD cannot sell more than 98% of a resort's total points to the public; thus, it has only about 455,380 points left that it can sell at Bay Lake Tower. Even if future sales drop due to the loss of sales incentives, it is very likely that points for some Use Years at BLT will start to be in very short supply in the coming months.
Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas - In July 2011, Animal Kingdom Villas direct sales apparently benefitted from the decline in sales at Bay Lake Tower. For the month Animal Kingdom Villas sales were up almost 63% to 48,555 points. July 2011 was the third best month in sales for Animal Kingdom Villasin the past year.DVD has sold about 63.7% of Animal Kingdom Villas' 7.4 million points. However, that number does not reflect points that have been reacquired by DVD through foreclosures, Right of First Refusal and other buybacks.
DVD has declared 70.34% of Animal Kingdom Villas for the DVC inventory and the last declaration was made on February 23, 2011. During the month, DVD started using three previously declared Units to support sales. These new Units were assigned the February, April, and September Use Years. December remains the most common Use Year at Animal Kingdom Villas while April is the least common Use Year.
Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa - For the fourth consecutive month Saratoga Springs' sales exceeded 60,000 points. in July Sartoga Springs sales were only 20,000 points less than Bay Lake Tower's sales for the month, which is the closest Saratoga Springs' sales have been since Bay Lake Tower's sales started in October 2008
DVD has declared 48 of Saratoga Springs' 60 Treehouse Villas for the DVC inventory, with the latest Declaration being made on August 4, 2011. At the current rate of sales, DVD may have to declare the remaining 12 Treehouse Villas by November, 2011.
As of July 31, 2011, DVD has sold 40.2% of the 905,250 points that are allotted to the Treehouse Villas. However, the majority of points being sold by DVD continue to be drawn from the Saratoga Springs Units that were declared prior to 2009 before the Treehouse Villas were added.
