The financial crisis is hitting the timeshare industry hard. This affects states, especially Florida—the state that houses the most timeshare units in the US.

Developers and brokers say that they can no longer sell timeshare units with the convenient loan plans they used to have. Plus, timeshare companies across the US are slashing the personnel. This makes selling and service all the more harder.

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports, “Bluegreen Corp. of Boca Raton…just laid off 2,300 people nationwide from a workforce that reached 6,800 at its peak. And it expects to reduce timeshare sales by roughly 60 percent this year.”

While developers continue to pull their hair out, timeshare owners are less affected. Speculators say that the re-sale values of timeshares are stable.

The downturn of the industry comes as a great surprise to many. Timeshares have grown tremendously in the past two years. It even weathered the 9-11 attacks with robust numbers. But the 2009 recession is simply clobbering the once blooming industry.

“Timeshares have always been the little engine that could — until the credit markets froze,” claims Howard Nusbaum, president of the American Resort Development Association. “We feel kind of like victims,” he says.

Nusbaum predicts that US timeshares will decline 20-25 percent by the end of this year.

To minimize the effects, industry representatives are now requesting assistance from Washington’s Troubled Asset Relief Program. If they are approved, the industry will have enough backing to—hopefully—reverse their misfortune.