Top 13 Vacation Home Hotspots for the Ultra-Wealthy

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Henley & Partners’ 2023 USA Wealth Report, an overview of the country’s private wealth sector, shows that total wealth held in the U.S. amounts to $65 trillion, making it by far the biggest wealth market in the world with 32% of global wealth and 36% of the world’s millionaires.

One thing ultra-wealthy families spend on is real estate — often, more than one home. The researchers looked at where centimillionaires — those with wealth of of $100 million or more — buy their holiday homes, as measured by centimillionaire population during peak season.

The report noted that the U.S. luxury real estate market has slowed considerably in recent months with fewer homes for sale and lower prices paid. But that’s unlikely to bring the luxury residential sector to a standstill.

During the pandemic, many Americans turned their second homes into primary residences, as the rise of remote work contributed to migration from major cities. The priciest home markets are still in country’s wealthiest cities — New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston — but attractive secondary markets have rapidly come to the fore, in beachfront areas and in the Rocky Mountains, as well as in emerging tech hubs, such as Austin, Texas, according to the report.

The report, produced in partnership with the wealth intelligence firm New World Wealth, considers “wealth” as all of an individual’s net investable assets, including property, cash and listed company holdings, less any liabilities. There are 5.3 million high-net-worth individuals living in the U.S., each with wealth of $1 million or more. Of these, 9,630 are centi-millionaires, and 770 are billionaires.

New World Wealth tracks the movements and spending habits of more than 150,000 high-net-worth individuals in its in-house database, with a special focus on those with upward of $10 million in investable assets.

See the gallery for a rundown of top locales where centi-millionaires own second homes, including peak-month figures — excluding those who stay in hotels — and the number of year-round centi-millionaire residents.

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