While much remains obscure, what is clear is that, while global markets remain uneasy, the market in Palm Beach real estate continues to be, as the broker Ms. DeWoody noted, “bulletproof.”
Surely, the most famous part-time resident is President Trump. Yet he is far from the wealthiest. Bloomberg has pegged the net worth of the Palm Beach homeowner Julia Flesher Koch and her family, for instance, at more than $80 billion. Other multibillionaires in that economic stratum and the same neighborhood include the brokerage magnate Thomas Peterffy and the Blackstone Group chief executive Stephen A. Schwarzman.
Originally envisioned as a haven for moneyed Northerners, Palm Beach benefits from the geographic advantages that inspired its original developer, the Standard Oil magnate Henry Flagler, to characterize it as a “veritable paradise.” And its physical isolation makes it ideally suited to an increasingly insulated elite. Accessible only by way of three drawbridges, the town has its own Police Department, Fire Department and, since the 2016 election, Secret Service security zone.
Pointing to a building boom in nearby West Palm Beach, Todd Peter, a real estate agent at Sotheby’s, noted that, for those at the apex of the wealth pyramid, Palm Beach island is, in some sense, an inevitable destination.
“There’s only so much world-class oceanfront to go around,” Mr. Peter said.
27 Coveted Acres
No one seems more hellbent on gobbling up attractive Palm Beach properties than the hedge fund titan, Republican donor and philanthropist Ken Griffin.
More than a decade ago, Mr. Griffin began acquiring mega-mansions along a stretch of South County Road known even then as Billionaires’ Row. Not long after each deal closed, Mr. Griffin bulldozed each one.
