The window may be closing on some of the greatest bargains ever in vacation real estate, according to the latest research into the shared-ownership real estate business.

After years of declining sales and prices, developers of fractional interest properties, private residence clubs and destination clubs are seeing some light at the end of the tunnel, a study by Ragatz Associates found.

The vacation home and second home sectors are always the last to recover from a recession, and the same holds true this time around. But even though the business is still mired in a downturn, developers are starting to raise their prices.

"It seems like the bleeding has stopped," said researcher Richard Ragatz, who found that the average price per share rose 4 percent over last 12 months, from $159,000 to $166,000. But that's still way below the peak of $237,000 per share in 2007, when the resort market went belly-up.

So even at the slightly higher price, shares in these highly amenitized shared-ownership vacation properties are 32 percent cheaper now than they were seven years ago.

On an average price per week, prices are up 22 percent from last year, from $28,000 to $34,500. But they are still 26 percent less expensive than in 2007.

Ragatz also found that there are no shared-ownership properties in presale mode, meaning that nothing new is on the market or being contemplated by developers at this time. Thus, when what's available now is finally snapped up, there will be no new supply to meet demand and prices should shoot back up.

Shared ownership "is still a great concept," and there are "some recent signs of a turnaround," the Eugene, Ore., researcher said. "But we're not fully back yet, and I expect no major breakthroughs in 2014 or 2015."

Ragatz's research covers the upper echelons of the shared-ownership business.

Fractionals and private clubs are similar in that they both typically sell deeded ownership in shares of vacation homes, ranging from 1/15th share -- three weeks of annual use -- to quarter shares, with three months of annual use.

But the two components vary in terms of price, quality and the degree of services and amenities. For his annual report, now in its 14th year, Ragatz arbitrarily assumes that shares selling for more than $1,000 per square foot fall into the fractional interest category, while those selling above that benchmark are private residence clubs.

A destination club, on the other hand, typically sells 30-year memberships on a non-equity basis. While some clubs are equity-based, they all are part of wider networks of holiday properties in multiple locations. The right-to-use concept also is characterized by a refund policy that gives members their money back when they leave the club.

Time-shares, which generally market less expensive units in increments as short as a single week, have seen their sales improve slightly on a year-over-year basis since 2009. And the American Resort Developers Association is "cautiously optimistic" that the trend will continue.

For his latest report, Ragatz found far fewer active projects than in previous years. There are currently 75 fractional and private clubs in an active sales mode, compared to 153 in 2007. And there are only seven destination clubs now selling, vs. 21 seven years ago.

Only two private clubs came to market last year, while one sold out, seven stopped selling, seven others converted to time-share, six re-started and one converted to full ownership. In addition, several lowered their prices to the point where, by the researcher's definition, they became fractionals.

Overall, the resort properties covered in the report garnered $517 million in sales last year. That's up from $497 million in 2012. But in 2007, sales totaled $2.3 billion. (The study covers the United States, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean, but not Europe.)

By segment, sales of fractionals are down 83 percent from their peak, sales of private clubs are off 85 percent and sales of destination clubs are down 58 percent.

The factors holding back the business are some of the very same ones that squeeze the residential market -- economic uncertainty, lack of equity in peoples' homes, the glut of inventory on the market, increasing competition from rentals, excessive pricing and high maintenance fees.

But Ragatz found that the economic climate is improving, home equity is rising once again, inventories are declining and developers are becoming more realistic when it comes to their prices and maintenance fees.

At the same time, there is still a lack of financing. There's also "serious" competition from rentals and rental clubs, and would-be buyers are concerned what people will think of them when they splurge on any form of shared ownership.

On that last point, the size of shares -- read, weeks -- has "decreased significantly" to broaden the market and sell just enough weeks that people can actually use. In other words, there is less conspicuous consumption. "There is a continued and significant trends toward smaller shares," he said.

As in previous studies, Ragatz found at least nine different sizes of shares being sold. But to lower prices in accord with declining sales, there was a tendancy toward smaller shares, fewer bedrooms and smaller units.

On the positive side, the researcher also found an increased willingness on the part of developers to help owners rent their unused weeks, exchange their weeks for time in other properties, and offer an in-house resale program should the owner decide he wants out.

The last thing Armand Assante wanted was to become a poster boy for mortgage fraud. But when the FBI wouldn't get involved, he had to take matters into his own hands.

Fortunately, the 64-year-old actor has the wherewithal to take on a bank, in this case an "institution" that has been labeled a foreclosure mill by some. Most people don't have the money or the will to fight their lenders, and end up losing their homes.

Assante's case against Eastern Savings Bank of Hunt Valley, Md., is complicated, as most of these kinds of things are. But it pretty much boils down to this: He wanted to refinance his loan on his 222-acre family farm in Campbell Hall, N.Y., some 50 miles north of New York City. But Eastern turned him down.

It wouldn't even take a $1.4 million payoff at the height of the mortgage meltdown, according to Assante's complaint, when all he owed was $1.475 million.

The Emmy-winning actor almost lost the property in a bankruptcy proceeding in the process of trying to save the farm, which had been in his family for ages. And as he continued to fight, he discovered that he was paying an exorbitant interest rate -- one that Eastern supposedly wanted to keep on its books -- and that Eastern's record in working with troubled borrowers ranged from poor to terrible.

At a time when the national average mortgage rate was roughly 4.5 percent, Assante was paying 9.9 percent. He also says that in 2009, 47 percent of Eastern's mortgages were delinquent, whereas the national average was 5 percent. And that in 2008, the Maryland bank was earning 13 percent of its gross profit from foreclosures versus a national average of 0.5 percent.

Eastern was "writing risky loans in order to take them back," says the actor's attorney, Thomas Vasti.

There's a lot more to this story, but the FBI wouldn't get involved. Assante got in the door there because of who he is and who he knows. But that was it.

"They basically told me that they wouldn't get involved unless the case was $5 million or more or something commercial," Assante said. "I was told that they have so many cases that they were overwhelmed."

But that doesn't square with an audit of the Justice Department's efforts to address the problem. Although the Obama administration has said wiping out mortgage fraud is a top priority, an examination by the DOJ's Inspector General found that the department "did not uniformly ensure that mortgage fraud was prioritized at a level commensurate with its public statements."

The IG also found that the FBI's Criminal Investigative Division ranked loan fraud as the lowest criminal threat in its lowest crime category. And while the FBI received $196 million in funding to investigate mortgage fraud from fiscal years 2009 through 2011, by the end of that time, the number of agents investigating such activities actually declined, as well as the number of pending investigations.

The report has attracted the attention of three federal legislators, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who is often mentioned as a possible presidential candidate in 2016.

Along with Reps. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., and Elijah Cummings, D-Md., senator Warren has asked Attorney General Eric Holder for a sit-down to discuss the apparent lack of effort in investigating and prosecuting crimes such as predatory lending, loan modification scams and abusive servicing practices.

The DOJ watchdog's report certainly was damning. For example, it found "numerous significant errors and inaccuracies" in the claims made by Holder during an October 2012 press briefing, when the attorney general said the Distressed Homeowner Initiative had resulted in charges against 530 criminal defendants, including 172 executives, over the preceding 12 months.

Holder also announced that 110 federal civil cases were filed against more than 150 defendants for losses totaling at least $37 million and involving more than 15,000 victims.

But almost a year later, it was revealed that several of those statistics "were substantially overstated," the report says. Specifically, only 107 criminal defendants were charged, not 530 as originally stated, and the total losses associated with Distressed Homeowners cases were $95 million, 91 percent less than the $1 billion reported by Holder.

Even worse, perhaps, is that although the department was aware of the "serious flaws" in its stats, it continued to cite them in its mortgage fraud press releases for 10 months.

But back to Assante, who sometimes plays a heavy on TV and in the movies. In this case, he alleges, the bank was the bad guy. An examination of his loan documents by forensic mortgage expert Michael Richardson revealed a "file full of fraud." Among other things, Richardson says he found altered loan documents and missing, but required, disclosures.

Vasti, the actor's attorney, believes Eastern has "been doing this to hundreds of people." But this time, it appears, the bank has picked the wrong guy.

Since the passage of the National Housing Act of 1934, Americans have been promised a safe, decent and sanitary home. While it isn't written in stone like our federal housing policy, the national agenda also aims to make sure that anyone who has served his or her country in the military service should also have a safe, decent and stable place to call home.

Frequently, that goal can be achieved through the GI Bill, which allows for no-down-payment loans. On top of that, many states have special programs for the servicemen and women residing within their borders.

Many private entities also have stepped up to help America's returning GIs in one way or another. National homebuilder Pulte, for example, gave away 20 brand-new homes to worthy veterans over the last two years.

But arguably, no single company has done more than the Madison, Wisconsin-based Fairway Independent Mortgage Corp. Over the last two years, Fairway, which has 190 branches covering all 50 states, has given 27 houses mortgage-free to wounded veterans or their families.

"I believe you can make a difference and make a living at the same time. That's when it becomes fun," says Louise Thaxton, the 61-year-old dynamo who makes Fairway's effort roll.

"Nobody asks to be a hero; it just sometimes turns out that way," she says, quoting a popular line from the 2001 military film "Black Hawk Down." "We can step back and someone else can give them a mortgage-free house, or we can step up."

Working in Fairway's Leesville, Louisiana, office, Thaxton is on a crusade on behalf of servicepeople returning from the wars in the Middle East.

"I saw the need for excellence in serving the military," she explains. "We're the watchdog for the better part of the world, and someone needs to be a watchdog that stands between the warriors and the wolves."

That watchdog, as it turns out, is a 5-foot-2 grandmother of 17 who sees the military as a "targeted population," easily cheated, over-billed, ripped off and scammed.

In other words, our fighting men and women make great marks.

They typically are young and financially inexperienced. They may have been trained for combat, but not for fiscal battles. What's more, servicepeople are often transient and, therefore, totally unaware of which local businesses are honest and which are not.

At Fort Polk in Louisiana, Thaxton saw young vets being raked over the coals by used car companies and payday lenders, and she also saw overcharging by title companies and even a bit of gouging by some mortgage brokers.

"I saw lenders not using VA or FHA loans because 'they were too hard' just so they could get the extra fees" from conventional mortgages, she says. "They would refinance people from a 30-year fixed loan to a three-year ARM just to get $5,000 in fees."

Besides closing her own deals, Thaxton began teaching her colleagues about the ins and outs of dealing with returning warriors, which is not the same as working with everyday citizens. For one thing, they often don't have the luxury of time and cannot wait for the market to turn. Another example: Vets may not be stationed at the same base as their spouse, or the civilian half of the couple may be unable to find work.

Four years ago, Thaxton asked her company to back an extension of her education efforts, and Fairway CEO Steve Jacobson gave her his blessing. "He told me to just run with it," Thaxton says.

So she set about creating a continuing education class for real estate agents and brokers on how to deal with military clients. At the end of the class, students are awarded a Certified Military Residential Specialist diploma. (The designation is Fairway's, and not the Mortgage Bankers Association's or the National Association of Realtors', which has its own military designation.)

Last summer, in Clarksville, Tennessee, the home of Fort Campbell, Thaxton led a three-hour seminar for 400 realty pros from as far as 100 miles away. Pacing back and forth in her ever-present combat boots -- she wears them even when she's training for her first half-marathon in the rural backroads of Louisiana -- she asked the entire audience to stand. Then she asked those who have served in the military to sit down.

Next, she asked anyone who's a military spouse, parent, grandparent or child to sit as well, followed by aunts, uncle, nieces and nephews of someone in the service.

Only a few people were left standing, and the point was made: "We are all connected to the military."

At each seminar, Fairway donates a home to a wounded vet. In Tennessee, the recipient was retired Army Specialist Marshall Lane, who was wounded during combat operations in Afghanistan, earning a Purple Heart as well as a Combat Medical Badge for performing his duties while under fire from the enemy.

Everywhere she goes, Thaxton rallies the real estate troops.

"I have a huge goal that every wounded warrior receive a mortgage-free house," she said in Clarksville. "It's not impossible if everyone gives something. There's none of us who can do everything, but everyone can do something."

When the evangelist for wounded vets closed the class, the entire room stood and burst into applause.