I'm always amazed at how the richest neighborhoods are also among the most empty. If you walk down any side street along South Ocean Drive in Palm Beach, Fla., even at high season, the only people you see are landscapers and contractors. At night, whenever I drive by the posh, all-glass Richard Meier towers in Manhattan, all the lights seem to be off, except for one or two apartments. The last time I was in Aspen, I drove through two of the highest-priced neighborhoods and didn't see a soul.
An article in London's Telegraph about Bishop's Gate, where metal-magnate Lakshmi Mittal is selling a place for £40 million, says that "a sizable proportion of the houses in The Bishops Avenue…appear to be empty and unloved. Windows are barred, drives are unswept and weeds are creeping through."
The question, of course, is why. I have three theories.
Today's rich are more itinerant that ever. They like to travel and are on the road or in the skies more often than any other generation of rich people.
They have a porfolio of homes. Forget the summer home. Today's superwealthy have four or five homes depending on the season or weekend.
Homes are for investing not living. During the real-estate bubble, the wealthy were buying up homes as investments not residences. That was especially true in top neighborhoods, where homes are expected to retain more of their value.
Is all this empty mansion space good or bad for society? It's bad if you're a rich person trying to get to know your neighbors, because chances are, you'll never meet them. (Last week, a Palm Beacher called me to tell me she learned about her neighbor for the first time by reading about her in Richistan). But it's a net positive for the tax base, since all these wealthy property owners are paying local taxes without using many services.
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with the advent of fractional jet ownership programs and the concentration of wealth at the top the very rich are indeed more itinerate than ever and can swoop into wherever they want, as briefly as they want.
Comment by blame netjets - March 3, 2008
Right, quite right. The weathy guys' lonely made the wealthy community hot and hot. Some of them even go to to millionaire online community to entertain themselves. At a millionaire site called millionairecupid.com, I met tens of millionaires from my neighborhoods. Many of them went there every week.
Comment by whatwhy - March 3, 2008
