If you happen to have ever been a victim-er, I mean customer, of Ameriquest Mortgage or AMC mortgage, you probably know that last week was significant. December 13 and 14 were the days that checks were mailed to several hundred thousand people who participated in the Ameriquest Multistate Settlement.

On the now sinking ship of many subprime lenders, Ameriquest was once at the helm. This past August, Ameriquest Mortgage went down for the last time and its holdings were acquired by Citi Residential Lending.

Facing allegations of predatory lending practices that include everything from outright lying to borrowers to tricking them into signing double sets of mortgage papers, Ameriquest had little choice but to agree to reimburse some of the money they had gained through their unethical practices. The official website for communicating details about the settlement to borrowers explains, “The Settlement resolved an investigation by the Attorneys General and/or banking and finance regulators of every state (except Virginia) and the District of Columbia into claims that Ameriquest and other affiliated companies had engaged in various unlawful mortgage lending practices from January 1, 1999 through December 31, 2005.”

Only a few short years ago, Ameriquest was riding the crest of the subprime mortgage wave, advertising heavily on television, writing big checks to support political campaigns, and sponsoring football bowl games, with a promise to potential borrowers that, “You are more than your credit rating.” You can read all 55 pages of the settlement agreement here, but the bottom line is that qualifying borrowers are receiving their share of the nearly $300 million in settlement monies.

Roughly 60 percent of the half million people eligible filed before the September deadline to participate in the settlement. Last week, when the checks were mailed to borrowers, the amounts paid per person were between approximately $100 and about $7000. In most cases, the checks average between $500 and $900 per person, an amount that will no doubt be welcome by anyone this time of year, but is little comfort to the people who lost their homes and/or thousands of dollars because of the company’s manipulative lending practices.

On MSN Money, Liz Pulliam Weston, winner of the 2007 Clarion Award for online journalism, has one of the best articles I have read dealing with the whole subprime mortgage issue, its causes, and how it affects every single American. I hope you will take a moment and read her article, “Let’s Fix This Sub Prime Mess”.

Because timeshare real estate is rarely financed through loans that are structured like those of home mortgages, the current crisis in subprime mortgages has not directly affected timeshare real estate and vacation ownership. But that’s certainly not to say that it hasn’t indirectly affected timeshare real estate. Let’s not lose sight of what is really behind the record number of mortgage defaults and pending foreclosures. An Associated Press article by Rachel Beck, titled, “ALL BUSINESS: What’s Behind Foreclosures” adds further insight to the situation by bringing up statistics from the largest mortgage lender in the US, Countywide Financial Corp. Nearly 60 percent of Countywide mortgage loan defaults in the first 10 months of this year resulted because the homeowner experienced a loss in income due to salary cutbacks. And another 20 percent of defaults are attributed to the borrower experiencing illness and subsequent loss of income or going through a divorce. In fact, only 2 percent of Countywide mortgage defaults are directly attributable to payment increases because of adjustable mortgage rates.

So the big picture here is that a combination of factors that include everything from escalating adjustable mortgage rates, to divorce, illness, a slow housing market, and a sluggish job market, have all collectively worked to leave a record number of families at foreclosure’s door.

While few if any timeshare condos are financed on an adjustable loan, the overall economic climate does contribute to the fact that inventories of available timeshare resale continue to grow. As people deal with the need to cut back their expenditures because of job loss, divorce, or a growing home mortgage payment, they are putting their vacation club memberships and timeshare condos on the timeshare real estate market. At the same time, there will always be new timeshare resale coming on the market, not because of hardships, but because people’s lives simply change. Children grow up and leave home, people relocate because of job promotions, and other life changes cause people to sell timeshare and move on to something else – which may even be new timeshare real estate.

If you need to sell timeshare, Sell My Timeshare NOW has solutions to make it easier. And if you are in the market to buy timeshare, then the smart place to start is by shopping timeshare resales. No matter what your current situation in our changing economic environment, Sell My Timeshare NOW has answers to help you.

Don’t miss this YouTube video where ABC’s Brian Ross investigates Ameriquest and one man, Roland Arnall, who remains untouched by all that has happened at Ameriquest.

The planned construction of a 269-room Ritz–Carlton Tampa Bay and The Residences at The Ritz-Carlton Tampa Bay will give Florida its tenth Ritz-Carlton resort.

Orion Communities Inc. and RL Pearson & Associates, Inc. have committed to build the two new Ritz-Carlton properties, which will be in the Rocky Point area, near the Tampa International Airport. The condo component of the hotel will feature 44 condo units on the hotel’s top seven floors and, in an adjacent 19-story tower, there will be 132 private condos. Condo units will average 2800 square feet and residents will have access to the services of the hotel, but will have a pool, game area and other social areas that are not available for use by hotel guests.

While the Residences at the Ritz-Carlton are private, luxury residential condominiums, the Ritz-Carlton Club is fractional ownership (timeshare condos). Currently there are Ritz-Carlton Clubs in Aspen and Bachelor Gulch, Colorado; Jupiter, Florida; and St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands. Future Ritz-Carlton Club timeshare condos include Miami, San Francisco, and Rose Island, Bahamas.

Ritz-Carlton timeshare condo resales are available through Sell My Timeshare NOW at both Ritz Carlton Timeshare Bachelor Gulch, Colorado and at the Ritz-Carlton Club St. Thomas Timeshare in the Virgin Islands.

Hotelier César Ritz, established the famous Ritz Hotel in Paris and the Carlton in London. After his death in 1918, his wife continued the business, opening hotels in the Ritz-Carlton name. Irvin Berlin’s song, Puttin’ on the Ritz, was inspired by the elegance of the original Ritz Paris. Many people recorded the song over the years, but no version is better known than this one of Fred Astaire singing and tap dancing his way through, Puttin’ on the Ritz in this YouTube video.

The fight may be just beginning.

Developers in California are hoping to build nearly 1000 residences around Serene Lakes and at Royal George Cross Country Ski Resort. The homes would include estate homes, condos, and timeshares, according to a report by KCRA News of Sacramento, California.

The vision is ski-in and ski-out homes, with lift chairs to the nearby Sugar Bowl ski area. The homes and timeshare condos would be built around manmade lakes with parts of the area developed as summer camps and other areas left as wilderness.

But don’t expect this to happen immediately. Already there are concerns being voiced by the local chapter of the Sierra Club regarding the increased water and sewage demands the development would create as well as the negative environmental impact of the increased traffic.

Serene Lakes homeowner, David Africa is among many Royal Gorge residents who say they came to Serene Lakes for –as the name implies—the serenity.

Expect no further action toward approving or disapproving this residential and timeshare development until after the holidays.

Meanwhile, don’t think this area doesn’t already offer great opportunities in Lake Tahoe timeshare resales and Lake Tahoe timeshare rental, including all of the wonderful timeshare resorts listed here:

• Lodge At Lake Tahoe Timeshare Resales
• Tahoe Beach & Ski Club Timeshare Resales
• Tahoe Edgelake Beach Club Timeshare Resales
• Tahoe Sands Resort Timeshare Resales
• Tahoe Seasons Resort Timeshare Resales

Sadly, it seems that many timeshare scams target the elderly, but then, a lot of fraudulent business or investment deals in general prey on some older people who may be more trusting or more willing to believe that they are being given all the facts in a credible way.

This week, the Arizona Corporate Commission ordered Leonard Clark Rhodes, Jr., of Gilbert, Arizona to pay $160,663 in restitution and $50,000 in administrative penalties for defrauding elderly investors in two different investment programs. I am going to give you several facts about Rhodes’s scheme, because I think the more we drag this type of timeshare fraud out into the bright light of day, the less likely people are to fall for it in the future.

Rhodes told investors that his Universal Lease program offered the timesharing of investment hotel units in Mexico and Central America. The timeshare unit “investors” (and I use the word with sarcasm because these people were victims, not investors) were given the option to use the timeshare units themselves or to use them as timeshare rental units. Using the timeshare units was downplayed as an option in the written and oral presentations to investors, and in many cases was not even an option that interested some older investors.

The option to actually use the timeshare unit applied only to “investors” (there’s that word again) who had contributed a minimum of $5,000, in return for which they received no choice of location or date of the timeshare vacation week they received. Personal use of the timeshare unit also carried with it annual fees ranging from $380 to $645, which could increase based on the Consumer Price Index.

In the Universal Lease deal, “investors” were given two other options, besides using the mystery-location timeshare units themselves. The first option was to use the timeshare unit as a rental for potential investment return, but again the timeshare buyer was only told the location, date, and timeshare unit he or she owned, after the timeshare transaction was completed. In this option, the timeshare buyer was responsible to find timeshare renters and handle the timeshare rental transaction himself. The timeshare buyer was still obligated for the same annual fees, and was also told that managing his own timeshare rental was likely to yield less return than taking advantage of the other option.

The second timeshare rental option was to let a “professional third party servicing agent” manage the timeshare rental, a choice that the timeshare buyer was told, “…provided a superior rate of return over most other investments…” Investors—the timeshare buyers—were told that the Universal Lease would yield 11 percent annual return over 25 years if the investor used the designated servicing agent to manage and lease the timeshare units.

If you would like to read the charges brought by the Arizona Corporate Commission for violation of the Securities Act of Arizona, click here.

I can only shake my head in disgust that people were defrauded of their money in this way and breathe a sigh of relief that the State of Arizona is demanding restitution for the timeshare fraud victims. So here’s my summary of what this timeshare fraud case should teach all of us:

1. If it seems too good to be true, assume that it is.
2. If someone tells you that timeshares are an investment, be skeptical of everything else that person says because it is a flagrant violation of Securities and Exchange Commission rules to represent in any way that a timeshare is an investment.
3. Never buy timeshare “blind”. You should always know what timeshare resort and what week you are purchasing, or if you are buying a floating week. Where your timeshare unit is located, and when your timeshare week occurs during the calendar year both help determine the fair price you should pay for timeshare. It is impossible to know you are making a sound purchase if you buy timeshare without knowing all the facts!

To learn more about buying, renting or selling timeshare, visit the website of timeshare resale and timeshare rental marketing company, Sell My Timeshare NOW.