There Once was a House in Nantucket

One-third of the houses in Nantucket are $1-million-plus, and these days, when you have a local economy that is based on the until-recently rich, you know they’ll take you down with them. Good news (?) then that allegedly (?) the upswing is back on: “Wall Street vacationers are spending money freely once again, especially since July 4th weekend, when the super rich seemed to have finally returned, wallets open.” Fortune’s example of that? “That week, ex-Goldman Sachs honcho Jon Winkelried finally signed a contract to sell his property for just below the new asking price of $29 million — an island record and a figure that has some island residents shaking their heads in wonder: What year is it, again? Of course, when Winkelried put the waterfront property up for $55 million in 2008, that was an asking price no one took seriously then, either.” We call that “bargain-hunting” but considering he bought it for like $7 million in 1999, you can call it some kind of return to the glory days of bloat, sure! Still, Fortune’s conclusion that “optimism is rising” is pretty hilarious.