Jets, Jewels and Yachts Making a Rebound, Even in This Economy

In case you were wondering, the rich are doing OK. Maybe not as well as they were, or think they should be, but OK. So don’t worry about them. Really.

They are a tad miffed about it, though. Just ask Manhattan travel agent Rina Anoussi about her high-end clients. The New York Times did. “People are fed up, and they want to have a good time,” she told the paper. "They don’t want Italy 101. They want more exotic destinations like Kenya and Tanzania.”

Don’t we all?

More from the NYT:

Business is also creeping back for hotels, yacht rental companies, jet brokers and jewelry stores — purveyors of the luxury goods that once seemed immune to a downturn but then took a megahit with the economy. 

Some experts contend that much of the high-end spending before the recession was fueled by money borrowed by people who were trying to live beyond their means. Today there is a trend to reducing risk by cutting debt. But even people who came out of the financial crisis relatively unscathed are pulling back. The possibility of losing their wealth has become more real.

“Today if they buy, they are not willing to be embarrassed by overpaying,” said Jane Bayard, executive vice president at Warburg Realty Partnership of Manhattan. Though the Manhattan residential market has held up reasonably well, “there were times in 2007, for example, when there were multiple offers and people paid millions over the asking price,” Ms. Bayard said. “Today, nobody wants to be the last monkey in the tree.” 

The what?

Anyway, something seems to be going on that makes it feel like recovery to some people. Maybe the economy is almost fixed. Then again, there are limits.

“Everybody has cut back somewhat,” Shannon Webster, who runs a south Florida boat-chartering business, told the NYT. “Even people who rented a 225-foot boat are saying, ‘Can I get something that is 50 feet shorter?’ "

For f*ck’s sake, don’t let the neighbors find out.