Luxury spending on the rise in US, wealthy are happy: Survey

Spending on luxury goods by affluent Americans is estimated to grow by $28 billion in 2010, experts said on Wednesday, and the wealthy are happy despite most believing the US is still in recession.

The ‘Survey of Affluence and Wealth in America’ found luxury spending would rebound for the first time in three years, led by purchases of automobiles, services, travel and children's clothing.

But the online poll of 1,900 households with an average annual income of more than $235,000 by American Express Publishing and Harrison Group showed that 94% still believe the US is in recession.

The households surveyed between January and April represent 10% of Americans and 50% of all retail sales.

"Interest in luxury is trending [sic] up, but this interest is qualitatively different from the unbridled enthusiasm that characterized the mid-2000s," said Jim Taylor, Harrison Group's vice-chairman.

"People take pride in the way they have managed their finances and family through the recession. We think it's going to be a pretty good Christmas [for retailers]," Taylor said.

This pride had led to happiness among the rich, with 71% saying they are happy, up from 40% in 2007.

"It's because they didn't know they could survive something this bad," Taylor told the Luxury Marketing Council of New York on Wednesday.

"They have become competent, they have got close to their families, they have self-esteem from their ability to handle a crisis."

More than 80% of families are now eating at least four meals a week together, compared with 16% five years ago, Taylor said.

The survey also found that the recession has resulted in more people measuring their success by their personal lives, not their careers.

Only 45% said they were successful in 2007, while this year 76% consider themselves successful in their personal lives and 67% in their careers.

"In 2007, people were really measuring themselves about the bigger house they were going to buy, the better vacation, the next promotion," said Cara David of American Express Publishing.

“Few people are judging their success that way any more," she said. "It's about the lives that they are living rather than the living that they are making."