Ragatz Associates just released their latest annual survey of fractional homes, private residence clubs and destination clubs in North America. The overall combined sales were $2.3 billion in 2007, up 8.3 per cent from 2006.

Ragatz counted 300 fractional and private residence clubs in this years survey, up from 254 in 2006. The states of Florida, Colorado and California contained 26 percent of these developments, this reflects the popularity in both beach and ski areas. The first private residence clubs were created in Colorado in the early 1990s, to provide people with a luxury home in the mountains that they could use for a few weeks a year.

The size of shares varies quite a bit. Amongst private residence clubs the most popular shares are 1/8s (32 percent), 1/12s (24 percent) and 1/10s (16 percent) and for fractionals the most popular shares are 1/4s (34 percent), 1/10s (21 percent) and 1/8s (21 percent). The most frequent sizes for both fractionals and private residence clubs are two and three bedroom residences, together they make up about 75 percent of the available homes. The average size of the homes are 1,745 sq ft, but this varies from 500 sq ft for studios (which are just 2 percent of the properties), to 3,325 sq ft for four bedroom residences.

The figures for destination clubs showed $610m in sales, or about 6 per cent more than 2006. Ragatz estimates that there are about 6,400 members of the clubs, a figure which we would broadly agree with. Ragatz estimates the average size of homes at 3,000 sq ft.