In recent months, I have seen homes selling - mostly in Florida - for prices that are double or triple what they sold for a few years ago. That is not your typical 3-4% inflation; that is called runaway Ultra-luxe-flation. It shows how in our K-shaped economy, while the ultra wealthy are accumulating wealth at unprecedented levels, they are paying significantly higher prices for the 'stuff' very wealthy people tend to buy, especially homes.

Runaway inflation has to be watched very carefully. Chances are the ultra wealthy can weather pullbacks in markets better than anyone, but they are not immune from pain. Many very wealthy people are prone to taking big risks too. Some might even be termed "educated gamblers". The one area they are most likely to be hurt by are margin calls: many very wealthy people are prone to using borrowed money - debt - to finance wealth growth and opportunity. When stock prices plummeted on Black Thursday and Black Tuesday in October 1929, lenders and banks issued margin calls demanding immediate repayment of those loans. Illiquid assets are extremely tough to sell during a crisis and the vulture buyers armed with massive swaths of cash know it.

As of August 2026, total U.S. money market fund assets, the standard proxy for cash sitting on the sidelines, stand at a record $7.93 trillion. That is a lot of 'vulture money,' which usually implies that potential bargains from any potential correction might be smaller than hoped for.

If a $10 million home in 2015 now costs $30 million, imagine how much you would have to save in taxes to justify paying that much more. I was stunned years ago when a colleague of mine showed me images of a rather ordinary penthouse is client had bought in Monaco for $80 million. I asked why his client bought it? He pointed out that his tax savings by relocating to that location would pay for the entire property within three years.