It may be that many Ãœber rich know something of what is coming - collapse of the markets, collapse of currencies. They may be putting their money into real estate as somthing tangible, other than bonds, stocks, and paper.
It is also true that during the Obama Depression of the last 7 years, the middle class has been under assault and is shrinking rapidly, while many of the hyper rich have become much more wealthy due to bailouts, QE1, QE2, ZIRP, and other factors.
What surface ships are to submarines, these homes are to the hordes when the SHTF.
For the super rich people in the world, America is one of economic safe havens. They all have a contingency plan to bail out of their country in case the economy of their country collapses. They and their wealth would escape to countries like U.S. For example, wealthy Chinese will keep coming in, driving up the price of prime real estate, and this will continue for some time.
You'll find the same fundamentals at work with rare art and other collectibles.
All these super rich types who buy homes in Aspen like to think of themselves as Environmentalists, but they end up taking a pristine, natural area and putting a massive, 20,000 or 30,000 square foot house in the middle of it. So they get to look outside and see nature and think that they are being good Environmentalists even though they just destroyed a natural area for their own vanity and comfort.
where will those poor rich people live?
we should have a housing program for them.