Gold Coast Booming? Or a Retreat to Safety? We ask

Gold Coast booming?
They’re not running toward real estate…
They’re running away from everything else.

Ray Dalio,
Bridgewater CEO
doesn’t forecast recessions.
He forecasts… breakdowns.
Debt rising.
Trust falling.
The old world order… unraveling.
Larry Fink
Blackrock’s CEO agrees.
“In this fragmented world,” he writes,
“growth is constrained.”
But in private?
He’s more blunt,
Sayiing “We’re already in recession.”
JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon
He gives it… fifty-fifty.
“Stagflation”, he warns.
Like the 1970s.
Tariffs.
Inflation.
Deficits.
Bubbles.
And yet…
In Fairfield County?
Bidding wars.
Multiple offers.
Agents say… it’s hot.
Why the disconnect?
Psychology.
We see what’s recent…
not what’s real.

A few closings… and suddenly — it’s a boom?

This is No Boom.
It’s reflex.
Meanwhile, back in Manhattan…
Jonathan Miller calls it:
“A return to zero.”
Not collapse.
Not growth.
Just… zero.
Luxury prices ticked up…
because the apartments got bigger.
Price-per-square-foot?
Flat.
Cash ruled the market.
Bidding wars didn’t.
Think about that.
So…what to do, what to do.
Is now the time to buy?
Your agents says yes.
Buy buy buy
We’ve seen this movie before.
You can’t keep New York down.
History agrees.
New York always reinvents.
Koch.
Giuliani.
Bloomberg.
Each rebuilt.
Rezoned.
Reimagined.
And capital came flooding back.

But now? This time?
Office towers… they’re half full.
Trains… they’re half empty.
And billionaires?
Paul Tudor Jones
Carl Icahn
Barry Sternlicht
David Tepper
Ken Griffin
All….Gone.
Palm Beach is rising.
Texas is trading.
New York isn’t sneezing.
It’s exhaling.

And where does that capital go?
Somewhere quieter.
Somewhere safer.
To Greenwich. Westport, Darien and New Canaan.
Median price? Up 32%.
Dollar volume? Up 69%.
Inventory? Tight.
Days on market? Fifteen.
Buyers aren’t chasing gains.
They’re chasing… security.
Not volatility.
Not complexity.
But privacy.
Liquidity.
Simplicity.
A $3 million house…
in a triple-A town…
suddenly feels like…
the safest asset in America.

What’s the takeaway?
This isn’t a rally.
It’s a relocation.

A defensive play.
A capital migration.
From skyline… to treeline.

I’m John Engel.
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