Posted on 04/13/2006 5:14:49 AM PDT by rabidralph
JACKSON, Wyo. -- In an era when the rich are the only income group getting richer, ever-larger waves of wealth are spilling in from the coasts and swamping the resort valleys of the Rocky Mountain West.
The rich are coming not just to ski, mountain-bike or build imposing second homes. They are coming to stay -- or, at the very least, secure permanent resident status for tax purposes. The moneyed invasion is driving population growth rates that are among the highest in the nation.
From Aspen to Jackson to Squaw Valley, high-net-worth individuals fill sleek restaurants night after night to eat $30 plates of freshly flown-in fish. They donate generously for the arts, wildlife conservation, and preserving forest and farmland near their custom-built homes.
And with millions of well-to-do baby boomers nearing retirement, the Rocky Mountain resort forecast is for years upon years of the incoming rich -- seeking big sky, big houses and the comfort of others who can afford to live large.
"The herd instinct is as strong with multimillionaires as it is with any two- or four-legged animal," said Bob Graham, 69, a real estate agent here for three decades.
Graham has marveled -- and profited -- as this well-heeled year-round herd has grown thicker in the past 10 years. "It has been a wonderful blessing," he said.
Not everyone feels that way.
The rich have collectively inflated real estate to prices that are far beyond the means of those who serve them supper, take their blood pressure or police their gated subdivisions. The service workers -- professionals and blue-collar alike -- tend to live in adjacent valleys and commute.
There is simmering resentment of the rich.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I thought this was a funny article because the reporter made so many references to "the rich." He doesn't bother to interview any of them. I'm sure he's perplexed on why "the rich" keep giving their money away to environmental and cultural causes, yet they choose to live in 15,000 sq. ft. homes and be "rich."
OMG MEOW!!!
Can your say "class warfare" and "penny-envy"
If I were 'rich', I'd be doing the same thing. I've always wanted my own county in the the Grand Tetons. :>)
I'm sure all the real estate developers in Aspen and Vail are shaking with anger at all the development going on in Jackson. There should be laws that tell people where the wealthy should live! And those laws should be written by reporters, because they apparently know how people should live their lives. Ask any reporter, they will agree.
terrible thing for the economy of an area when tons of millionaires move in. The indigenous population must be suffering horribly under the oppression of wealthy people who spend money like drunken sailors.
And all the land is being sucked up by "the rich"? The poor people in Wyoming have no place to live?
Pathetic attempt at class warfare.
Always.
"Rich" is a relative word. I am "rich" compared to where I was 30 years ago and "poor" Americans are "rich" by world standards.
I couldn't care less how multi millionaires got their money or how they spend it......It isn't mine
Unless you consider the majority of Americans who are in some way invested in the stock market and have seen the values of their investments grow 50% in the past three years, or the majority of Americans who own their own homes and have seen the values rise dramatically in the past five years. Or there's the fact that personal income across the board is higher than it's ever been.
What world do these morons who consider themselves journalists live in?!
Yes, I was wondering if they were going to define "the rich".
"In an era when the rich are the only income group getting richer"
Same old liberal crap.
Now if a Democrat were President it would be entirely different...
Liberal journalists despise the rich. Unless they are Katie, Matt, Oprah, Cruise, or other leftist freaks.
"Rich" is anyone who has a dollar more than I do, poor is someone with a dollar less. I'm smack in the middle.
Why would I mind if my house went up in value? I thought that was a good thing.
Oh, for the glory days of the Clinton Administration, when only the poor were getting richer. [sighs, right hand moving rapidly]
OK ...
First of all, I can still afford to live there because my fixed costs haven't gone up -- tax rates lag on existing property. I can tell you this because of what I know from experience of having a home in Macon County, NC ... where Highlands and Cashiers have become the ASpen of the East. My property value (land) has, on paper, gone up ten-fold. My dwelling value has doubled. My taxes have gone up $15 in 8 years.
Wealth-in brings money into the economy and a rising tide raises all boats -- at least the ones who care to float higher.
Turn the scenario around -- if poverty was moving into the area, depressing home prices, would THAT be a good thing, because now your home would sell for less? No, of course not.
This whole line of thought is specious at best. Folks who don't want to see the 'rich' or the 'poor' move in around them are just xenophobes, who want the last house built to be theirs.
I know a guy who worked in Aspen and lived in a teepee because he couldn't afford the rent in town and didn't have the time to commute from a more resonably priced place to live.
Grubb, who makes $75,000 a year, lives in a subsidized apartment owned by the town. He said he cannot afford a single-family house anywhere in Jackson Hole and is looking to buy in the town of Alpine, about 45 minutes away
It's nice to be established when the tide rolls in. Could your kids just starting out afford to live in Highlands?
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