Nightline had a piece on the uber-wealthy this evening. If you missed it, you can find it on the ABC News website: Super Rich: 'It's Not About Necessity.
The subtitle say it all: Economic Downturn Has Little Impact on Wealthy Americans Who Specialize in Spending.
The article notes that the top 1% of Americans control about 33% of the wealth ($17 trillion), and as the now ubiquitous Robert Frank puts it, ""Even I underestimated the degree to which the wealthy are almost oblivious to the fact that we are in a recession. The super rich are unaffected."
Yesterday the Washington Post ran an article on Luxury Foreclosures (thanks to Scott at Altos for the head's up on this one) which looks at the other end of the "rich" spectrum, the end that in many cases is over-extended and is feeling the pinch. According to the article, from 2006-2007 foreclosures of homes worth $500k-$1M were up 88% and foreclosures of homes worth $1M+ were up 50%.
The good news, as we noted in our recent report Understanding Today's Real Estate Market (members only), is that recent research suggests that many of those earning $500k or more a year see the current market conditions as an opportunity and are planning to buy homes (typically second or third homes) in the next 12 months, and the weak dollar is enticing many wealthy, foreign buyers. Interesting times, these...
