➺ April 2, 2026

Hey {{ first_name | Neighbor }}. The first patch of crocus has poked through my lawn – petals open, stamen-flashing the overcast sky. The least responsible bulb, crocus tommasinianus blooms first and grows later. No thought for photosynthetic capacity.

We all know flowers like that. We're always happy to see them.. - AB

➺ Extra Reading: You’ll find the results of our “Dream Second Home” survey below. If the topic tickles you, I’d suggest dipping into… The Country and the City by Raymond Williams, Bobos in Paradise by David Brooks, The Vacationers by Emma Straub, and, of course, A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf

You Ran the Numbers. Here's What You Missed.

You know exactly what a second home costs – not just the mortgage, but the upkeep, and the mental toll of leaving it empty most of the year. You’ve done the math. You’ve decided to wait.

But you’re not the only one that did that math. The team that helped build Zillow ran the same equation then built a product that fundamentally changes it. Pacaso offers true ownership in fully furnished luxury homes shared among 2–8 owners in 40+ destinations worldwide. That means the upkeep gets handled and the cost of those empty weeks goes to zero. New math.

Now you can get the joy of having that second, special place without the stress of having to manage it all on your own. It’s not a rental. It’s an asset. And it’s also a place you can come back to again and again, starting now. No more need to wait.

What we’re drinking about while talking.

STATUS ➽ LHR DTF
What if cosmopolitanism is just hedonism in rimless glasses?
Between 2005 and 2015, researchers from two German universities asked nearly 100,000 people across 74 countries whether they identified primarily as citizens of their nation or citizens of the world, then ran country-specific regressions to dig up the roots of cosmopolitan identity. The accepted wisdom was that economic and cultural elites with the most to gain from open markets — Davos Men reading Monocle over €40 älplermagronen in Gstaad — would score highest on the study's 0–6 scale (3.0 is balanced national/global identification). That was true, but only in Germany (2.5) and Spain (2.7). In Switzerland (2.7) and Norway (2.3), the educated identified globally and the wealthy identified nationally. In South Africa (2.9) and Armenia (2.6), the reverse. The only consistent trend across nearly all 74 countries: adventure-seekers identified globally while security-seekers identified nationally.

In America (2.4), income had zero correlation with global identity. The most consistent predictors were an immigrant parent and a college degree. This suggests there's no cosmopolitan global elite — just a group of people who, because of their backgrounds and dispositions, orient toward the unfamiliar (and learn how to take that fucking shuttle from Heathrow Terminal 4 to Heathrow Terminal 5).

TASTE ➽ Apollo’s Hot Sister
Why are countdowns so fucking beautiful?
To watch the launch of Artemis II on Wednesday was to be moved by the spectacle of American competence. Neither the voice loop protocols nor the technical language stripped to its load-bearing, NATO-phonetic¹ minimum should be moving, but they are. It's the precision of the thing. Constraints provoke artistry and conviction amplifies it. Proudly rational biz ops professionals turn on CNN to weep over the poetry of the thing.

Of course, it's easy to forget that much of poetry comes from technical places. The blazon, a Renaissance poetic form that catalogues and praises a beloved's physical attributes, was based on technical descriptions of coats of arms — verbal inventories used to reconstruct images from words alone. Sounds obscure, but that kind of litany became a popular, almost universal literary form. When Shakespeare asks if he shall compare you to a summer's day, he's asking if you'd like to go down a checklist. And of course you do. Because it's beautiful. Because it's technical. Because it makes you think of that most Elizabethan of CAPCOM blessings: Godspeed.

MONEY ➽ Future Poor
Why do we owe ourselves money?
Yesterday, Interview magazine published an interview of the podcaster/comedian Adam Friedland by the host/paternity tester Maury Povich. Naturally, Maury wanted to talk money, prompting Friedland to offer a self-deprecating anecdote: "I threw a tantrum with my business manager when they wanted me to do an IRA. They're like, 'You get it back when you're 65.' I was like, 'The 65-year-old me? That guy's a loser.' They're like, 'You're an idiot, Adam. It reduces your tax burden.'" Idiot or not, Friedland was asking a serious question: Financially speaking, what do we owe our future selves?

That question lives, philosophically speaking, under the umbrella of "prudential concern for future selves.” Answers vary. Most philosophers argue psychological continuity is sufficient to warrant deep prudential obligation. You are/owe you. But not everyone agrees. In 1984's Reasons and Persons, Derek Parfit² argued the future self is closer to a descendant than a continuation of the present self. Parfit thought people overindexed on prudential concern and underindexed on concern for others. Good for bankers. Bad for charity. Which is not to say Friedland’s manager is wrong – just that he might be.

Upper Middle is an independent publication helping oat milk elites reframe their relationships with status, taste, and money. Please help us keep the lights on (dimly) by joining Upper Middle Research, which pays mid-career professionals as much as $200/hour to take targeted surveys.

Where we want to go is always about where we’re at.

Upper Middle’s “Dream Second Home” survey examined what Oat Milk Elites want from a second residence and how their geographic preferences reflect their life circumstances. The survey focused on fantasies unconstrained by realities and, secondarily, on constraints. The findings suggest that there are, in fact, two different but overlapping second home markets – and that the desire for Nantucket vibes is correlated strongly (though not necessarily positively) to professional circumstance

The findings also suggest that very few of us really want a “getaway.” What we want is to get to the people and places that allows us to occupy a specific headspace³.

A Tale of Two Houses

Where respondents dream of owning a second home correlates with where they live and what they do — though certain aspirations seem to transcend geography. Among survey respondents, the most desirable domestic second home location was the Northeast Coast (35%), followed by Europe (29%), the Southeast Coast (19%), and Hawaii (18%). The fact that the Northeast and Europe top the list suggests that neither climate nor convenience outruns aspiration.

Within those broad preferences, wealth and profession predict destination more precisely than income bracket alone. The wealthiest respondents ($2.5M+ net worth) concentrate in Northeast Coast (40%) and largely abandon Florida (15%), while those with less savings ($100-249k net worth) lean more heavily (24%) toward the Sunshine State. These divergences are most evident around premium mountain destinations — Jackson Hole draws 8% of the $2.5M+ cohort and zero from middle-wealth respondents. Profession does its own sorting: tech workers lead on abroad interest (72%), creative professionals skew hardest toward Mountain (31%), and business and finance respondents are the most enthusiastic about warmer, southern beaches (33%). Second home preference doesn't just reflect wealth. It reflects paths to wealth.

The obstacles to second home ownership are predictable: cost (62%), maintenance (52%), and concerns the home won't get enough use (36%) dominate. This suggests that second homes are not purchased solely as luxuries but as sites of productive leisure. ROI is calculated in terms of time spent in the headspace they represent.

A Tale of Two Countries

Nearly two-thirds of respondents (65%) want a second home abroad, with the overwhelming preference (64%) being Europe — specifically Italy (26% of Europhiles), France (21%)⁴, the United Kingdom (10%), and Spain (10%). Counter to expectation, less wealthy respondents were considerably more likely than wealthy respondents to want a place in Europe: respondents worth under $50k want Europe at 84%, while those worth over $2.5M want it at only 56% — the lowest of any bracket. The top non-European destinations were Central America and the Caribbean (21% of abroad-wanting respondents), Mexico (9%), and Asia (9%).

The desire to live abroad was mediated by work engagement — or disengagement. Respondents who self-reported being checked out at work were more likely to want a home abroad (71%) than both fully-in-it workers (64%) and retirees (58%).

Preferences for Italy over France — or vice versa — were specifically correlated to attitudes about work. Simply put: Italy is for the toasted. Respondents interested in buying in Italy were not only more likely to describe their work status as “Checked Out” (8.6%), but also more likely to describe their travel style as "I want to not think about anything" (29%). France, on the other hand, attracted those who described their work status as “Coasting” (36%) and their travel style as seeking immersion (30%) or culture (26%). Provence was also more attractive to higher earners, with 15.6% of potential second home owners making $500k+ versus Italy's 7%.

France is a cigarette with dinner. Italy is a bottle of wine with lunch.

A Tale of Two Beaches

The most popular domestic second home destinations — Northeast Coast (35%), Southeast Coast (19%), Hawaii (18%) — are all on the water. When asked what attracts them most to their dream second home destination, respondents cited Access to Nature first (52%). Solitude (16%) ranked seventh, suggesting 42% of respondents want nature without solitude. We want to be outside. We don’t want to free solo.

What types of nature individuals prefer tracks with class origin. Working-class origin respondents choose Beach homes at 37% and Cape Cod homes at 20% — the lowest Cape Cod rate of any group. Wealthy-origin respondents invert that: Beach homes at 29%, Cape Cod homes at 35%. The wealthiest respondents by net worth ($2.5M+) concentrate in Northeast Coast (40%) and largely abandon Beach (19%). The pleasure coast and position coast are two different destinations.

Cape Cod choosers make the social logic explicit: They cite Social Scene as an attraction at 33% — the highest of any home type — while citing solitude at only 18%. Asked what would attract them to a second-home location, respondents led with Access to Nature (52%), Good Weather (40%), and Adventure/Activities (35%). Though nature ranked at the top of the list — and every place-ranking indicated proximity to the ocean was hugely desirable — social scene seems to mediate the type of nature people seek out more than vice versa. The nature they want comes with the right people in it.

Also, a bunch of respondents (3.4%) really care about golf.

A Tale of Two Days Off

The clearest finding in this survey has nothing to do with geography. It has to do with mentality. Second home preferences live downstream of two very different ideas about leisure. One cohort wants to soak up some sun. The other wants to soak up something more substantial. These two cohorts — the Tireds and the Wireds — are almost identical financially (47% of Wireds earn $200k+ compared to 46% of Tireds) and have markedly similar desire to be in nature (Wireds 52%, Tireds 51%). They differ predominantly in their relationship to arts and culture. For the Tireds, leisure means hanging out. For the Wireds, leisure means having plans — even if the plan is just to read a book.

The most plausible conclusion is not that these are two entirely different psychographics, but rather that people with similar lived experiences — and more specifically, similar experiences of work — cycle through different second-home preferences as their needs change. Sometimes they need recovery. Sometimes they need engagement. One telling trend within the data: Tireds skew younger than Wireds, which lends credence to the idea that needs shift over time.

Respondents climbing the ladder needed rest. Respondents who had climbed it wanted a view.

Historically Important Second Homes
7. The White House 
6. Elba (Various Outbuildings)
5. Graceland
4. Your Rich Friend’s Beach House
3. Balmoral
2. Yuanmingyuan
1. Walden Pond (Shack)

[2] Dude wrote a massive two volume work entitled On What Matters. Very swaggy shit.

[3] We separated beach from northeast beach because one is a thing you lay on and the other really isn’t except for the like five days of the year that it is. Mostly, it’s where your dog goes to play or your teenage nephew goes to do drugs.

[4] Obviously, there’s also a bifurcation among the Francophiles. The South of France people and the Paris people are not the same people. They don’t even like each other.