PLAYA FLAMINGO, Costa Rica -- When it comes to vacation homes, there's something for everyone.

You can own the whole thing or just a piece of it. Vacation homes are everywhere -- in the mountains, in the city and from sea to shining sea, including here at The Palms on Costa Rica's Pacific coast. And there is evidence that after a six-year lull, sales of vacation homes are finally starting to gather steam.

While the primary home sector remained in the doldrums last year, sales of vacation homes rose 7 percent, according to the National Association of Realtors' latest tally. Other forms of vacation ownership also are showing improvement. Sales of "fractionals," an upscale category of shared ownership that includes multiweek intervals, private residence clubs and destination clubs, increased 4 percent in 2011, according to the annual count by Ragatz Associates.

Time-share sales were up 2.4 percent in 2011 and 14.1 percent, year over year, in the first quarter of 2012, according to the American Resort Development Association.

While the uptick in 2011 was "nominal," says Richard Ragatz, who heads the Eugene, Ore., consulting and research firm that bears his name, "a significant number of developers said that sales were better during the second half of 2011, giving the impression that the bleeding has finally stopped and we may be turning the corner."

If you haven't been in the vacation property market for a while, here's what you'll find:

-- Whole ownership: According to the Census Bureau, there are now about 8 million vacation homes -- recreational property purchased for personal use -- located in practically every burg and hamlet nationwide, and in some major cities, too. (The total does not include the uncounted millions of vacation homes available worldwide.)

The choices are myriad. You can buy a small cabin in the woods, a retreat on the slopes, a beach bungalow or a condo in Gotham. The prices also range considerably, as do the headaches.

No one uses your place but you and your guests, which is usually a positive. But you pay for all the upkeep. And you pay for all the downtime when the house or apartment isn't being used.

-- Time shares: More than 8 million people own a week or two at their favorite resorts. What's more, 42 percent of last year's time-share buyers were repeat buyers who were either adding to their weeks or moving up, perhaps to larger units or to more lavish properties. That's a sign that despite the negative press, at least some people enjoy time sharing.

According to the American Resort Development Association, there are more than 1,500 time-share resorts with a total of nearly 195,000 units. As with location, time-share prices are all over the map. But sharing the same unit with 51 other owners is usually the least expensive way to own a vacation home. The average price per week was just over $15,000 in 2011.

Better yet, most resorts belong to exchange banks, where you can deposit your week at your home resort and take out time in a comparable spot elsewhere. So, as much as you may love your place, you are not stuck in that one spot every year. The amount of time purchased often is now expressed in "points" as opposed to weeks, allowing even greater flexibility.

On the other hand, time shares are a lousy investment. That's why they are sold as a hedge against inflation, or "vacation insurance." And they are difficult to resell, even at less than what you paid.

There is some evidence that developers are starting to embrace resales, which have been a black eye on the business. According to a survey by industry publication Perspective, two-thirds of respondents said developers need to create in-house resale programs, and 72 percent said resale information should be included in the original sales presentation.

-- Fractionals: These are upscale versions of time-share resorts, where you buy larger interests, typically in four-, eight- or 12-week chunks. Prices are also higher -- the average last year was $131,000, according to Ragatz -- and so are the monthly carrying costs, which can be hefty. But you get more usage and better exchange possibilities.

-- Private residence clubs: These are more luxurious yet -– and more exclusive. The clubs offer fully deeded fractional ownership with all the services and benefits of a five-star hotel. As with other forms of shared ownership, you pay for only the time you actually need, typically three to six weeks. The average price: $254,000 per share, with annual fees averaging $6,650. There may be no more than 300 private residence clubs worldwide.

Here at The Palms on what is called Costa Rica's best beach, the 33 two- and three-bedroom oceanfront town houses are being marketed as a mixture of both full ownership and fractional ownership of one-eighth or one-tenth interests. A combination of whole ownership/private residence club is something many of the major properties are offering these days, sales manager Mark Randall says.

Whether you buy the entire unit here for $1.1 million or an eighth of one for $129,000, you get all the services, including the ability to trade places with owners in other properties. Obviously, full owners can visit anytime they like. But part-timers can usually grab five to six weeks or more, depending on availability and how flexible they can be.

"There's no arbitrary limit on use, and owners are not penalized for how long they stay," says Randall.

-- Destination clubs: Fewer in number -- only six responded to the annual Ragatz survey -- destination clubs give members access to a collection of vacation homes worldwide. The average membership fee: $273,000.

Consistent with other types of interval ownership, clubs offer different levels of reservation priority, personalized services and amenities, such as spas and private chefs.

Similar to membership choices available at country clubs, buyers can choose between equity or nonequity clubs. But either way, you get to enjoy all the benefits.

In the 1970s, clothing shoppers were advised in a popular advertising jingle from the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union to "look for the union label." In that same spirit, anyone shopping for an energy-efficient home today would be well-advised to look for the sky-blue Energy Star label.

No disrespect toward LEED, Energy Performance and GreenPoint, all of which are fine rating systems in their own right, but Energy Star seems to have become most popular among homebuilders looking to differentiate themselves from the competition. More important, Energy Star provides a way for consumers to compare one home against another.

"Every home we build from coast to coast is a 100 percent Energy Star-certified home," says C.R. Herro, vice president of environmental affairs at Meritage Homes, one of the country's largest builders. Pulte and K.B. Home are other big Energy Star builders.

Energy Star is "the most recognizable and meaningful" of the energy performance labels, says Gene Myers, chief executive officer of New Town Builders in Denver. "We've looked at them all and gave up on all of them except Energy Star. It proves our homes cost less to operate."

To Rene Oehlerking of Garbett Homes, which builds in Utah, Wyoming and Idaho, Energy Star is "a no-brainer."

"Consumers can really see the dollars they are saving," Oehlerking says.

Energy Star is a joint program of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy that helps consumers identify energy-efficient products. To earn a coveted Energy Star certification, a new home built today must include features that make it at least 15 percent more efficient than homes built solely to the 2009 model energy building code, otherwise known as the International Energy Conservation Code.

Pasted to the home's electrical box, the Energy Star label is loaded with important information, including annual usage estimates for electricity, natural gas and CO2 emissions. It also projects the owner's yearly energy savings. But for most buyers, the key is the HERS rating.

HERS stands for Home Energy Rating System. It has been around since 1995, when a group of mortgage lenders, state energy officials and Energy Rated Homes of America created the Residential Energy Services Network (RESNET). Along with creating HERS, the independent nonprofit network is dedicated to creating a market for home energy ratings and to training independent contractors to rate homes fairly and consistently.

Myers, the Denver builder, compares the HERS rating to the miles-per-gallon sticker on new automobiles. With cars, though, you want a higher number, while with houses, you are better served with a lower number.

The HERS rating system runs from 150 to zero. A home built 20 years ago might earn a 133 rating, whereas a more efficient house built 10 years ago might receive a 123 rating.

The standard new home, built to the 2009 IECC with no special energy features, would rate a 100, says Steve Baden, executive director of the San Diego-based RESNET. The HERS score drops if builders do anything more than what is required in the way of energy efficiency.

Each one-point decrease in the HERS index corresponds to a 1 percent reduction in energy consumption. Houses with a 72 rating are 28 percent more efficient than a standard house; a house with a 50 rating would be 50 percent more efficient; and one with a zero rating would be 100 percent more efficient.

Myers says his company's homes are consistently in the 40s, which means they are super-efficient. To see how his homes measure up to the competition, buyers can simply compare New Town's HERS scores with those of other builders.

"All you have to do," Myers says, "is say, 'Show me your HERS score.'"

Unfortunately, not all builders' homes are rated by a RESNET-trained energy auditor. That's becoming less of a problem, however. Last year, according to Baden of RESNET, about 40 percent of all new homes sold carried a HERS rating. "We have gone from certifying a few hundred homes (a decade ago) to 120,000 in 2011," he says.

In June, Meritage, the big builder based in Scottsdale, Ariz., built the 1 millionth house rated by a HERS technician. "We use HERS scores because they allow customers to make substantive comparisons in an apple-to-apple way. If you build something better, you need to validate it and then convert it to currency," says Herro of Meritage.

"We've staked our future on HERS," adds Oehlerking, the marketing director at Garbett Homes. So have members of the Lexington, Ky., homebuilders association, which last month signed a memorandum of understanding with RESNET committing to encourage every member to participate in the Energy Star program.

All Energy Star homes are now constructed with a complete thermal enclosure system for comfort and lower utility bills, an HVAC system designed and installed for optimal performance and a comprehensive water management system to protect the building envelope from moisture intrusion.

Incidentally, an energy rating is not the same as an energy audit. An audit, or assessment, pinpoints where and how a home loses energy, which systems are working inefficiently, and the cost-effective measures that can be taken to improve performance. A rating, on the other hand, provides an analysis on how efficiently a home operates compared with other houses.

WASHINGTON -- Investors know a good thing when they see one. That's why they are lining up in droves to get their hands on thousands of government-held problem loans and foreclosures under Uncle Sam's mortgage-to-own initiative.

The deal makes sense for the government and investors, most of them private investment funds. The government moves its bad FHA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans off its books, while investors have an opportunity to buy these assets at a deep, deep discount.

The investors will work the bad loans, trying to get people to pay. But if they can't, owners will be offered the option of staying on as renters instead of moving out. Nonpaying "guests" who haven't made a mortgage payment in months also will be offered the opportunity to remain as renters.

It's all designed to clear the "shadow" inventory that hangs over the housing market, create something of a floor for home prices and push the market back into gear. Even lenders are getting in on the act, allowing at-risk borrowers to remain as tenants as an alternative to foreclosure.

But is mortgage-to-lease a good option for consumers? As usual, it depends.

Certainly it is a more compassionate option for financially strapped owners, who can use the tool to move on with whatever dignity they have left. They can rent their homes rather than move out.

If, after a few years, they straighten out their credit records and get back on their feet financially, perhaps they can buy back their homes. If they still can't afford the place, perhaps they can find something else they can afford, or move to another rental.

But renters beware. There could be pitfalls:

-- Under what terms can you repurchase the house? It's impossible to say what the place will be worth in the future, so setting a price now is probably out of the question. But the contract needs to contain some kind of formula for determining the eventual selling price. Whether you and the landlord agree that the selling price will be a certain percentage of a future appraised value or come up with some other way to determine the price, you need to decide on the method upfront and get it in writing.

-- What are the terms of the lease? Obviously, the length of the lease is a major factor. A year may not give you enough time to get back on your feet.

Bank of America's pilot program in Arizona, Nevada and New York allows delinquent borrowers to remain in their homes up to three years. Under the more conventional House-to-Home lease-to-own program operated by Landsmith, a San Francisco-based real estate fund, tenants have six years to complete the deal.

Another key clause: Will the rent increase from year to year? If so, by how much or what percentage?

-- What kind of fees will be involved? Will you be required to put down a security deposit? Will there be an exit fee?

Also, will any part of your rent be counted toward the down payment or purchase price if you decide to buy back your place? In a typical rent-to-own program, a portion of the rent is set aside as the tenant's equity in the place. But that might not be the case in a mortgage-to-lease program, or the set-aside might be an add-on.

-- Who will manage the property? Who will be responsible for maintenance and upkeep, and who will be responsible for major repairs?

Judging by the problems some jurisdictions have had with getting lenders to maintain their REO, or real estate owned (a euphemism for foreclosures), banks have not been very good at property management.

James Breitenstein at Landsmith says that is changing. "Expertise in (property management) is coming up very quickly," he says.

But still, it's not like the houses involved in a rent-to-own program will be side-by-side in a single development. Rather, the properties will be scattered across a large geographic area, making them more expensive to run. So it may prove difficult to get a faulty water heater or broken window replaced.

-- Will the investor sell the home to another, possibly less benevolent, investor? While investors tend to buy and hold, hoping the property will increase in value, lenders who offer mortgage-to-lease programs probably will want out as soon as possible.

Once lenders "stabilize" the property with a qualified renter, they will want to cut their losses and run. So you want to make sure that any subsequent owners will be bound by the terms of your lease.

-- Will you continue to owe any part of your outstanding loan balance? In return for being allowed to remain in the house as a tenant, you will be required to sign over title to the property. It's a cleaner break than an eviction, or even simply handing the keys and deed back to the lender and moving out.

But will the investor forgive what you owed on your mortgage? How much -- all or just a portion? And under what terms will you have to pay back the rest?

"Why would anyone consider participating in a mortgage-to-lease program unless their mortgage debt was completely canceled?" says Joe Buczkowski of LeaseRunner, a Web application that combines leasing and rent collection into one paperless process.

Realize, too, that any amount of mortgage debt that is forgiven is considered taxable income by the IRS. Under the Debt Relief Act of 2007, you can exclude as income up to $2 million in canceled debt. But the exclusion expires at the end of the year, and as of now, there seems to be no appetite in Congress to extend it.

-- What is your exit strategy? If you opt to remain as a tenant, the experts agree that you should plan for the worst, just in case. Use your time as a renter to save as much money as you can. That will allow you to make a smoother transition into new digs if you have to move on or put more cash into repurchasing your home.

"Start saving now," advises Alex Matjanec of MyBankTracker.com, a consumer-centric website that brings transparency to the often clandestine banking world.