While there are different models, most timeshare owners buy either a fraction of real estate at a vacation destination or points they can use at a property. In every case, there are annual maintenance fees that accompany the purchase of a unit for the lifetime of the contract.
Further, many owners finance their timeshare, rather than pay for it outright, which means there may be loan payments in addition to yearly fees. For timeshare loans, the overall delinquency rate was 12.8% in 2019 compared to less than 4% for traditional mortgage loans.
In 2019, the price of typical timeshare with a week's worth of vacation time was $22,942 plus maintenance fees of about $1,000 a year.