From wealth shifts shaping real estate, to an early read on Manhattan’s Q3 performance, to art and architecture at home and abroad, here’s what I’m watching this week.

In This Week’s Edition:

I’ve just received an advance look at the Q3 Manhattan market data, ahead of its release to the media. I regularly provide context and insights to accompany these numbers when they are reported publicly but here’s an early preview for you:

The quarter shows a resilient market with momentum across both the condo and co-op sectors.

Strength in the $1M–3M range underscores steady mid-market demand, while the surge in $10M–20M sales highlights the continued pull of Manhattan at the high end.

The broader narrative is one of renewed buyer confidence and selective but strong demand, particularly at the top of the market.

In 2025 alone, people in wealthy countries are expected to inherit nearly $6 trillion. This is one of the largest wealth transfers in history (The Economist).

This surge is being driven largely by the aging baby boomer generation, whose accumulated wealth is now moving to heirs, spouses, and charities. The scale of this intergenerational wealth transfer is extraordinary: equal to roughly 10% of the GDP of developed nations and has sharply increased over the past few decades.

Boomers came of age as housing and stock markets began their long climb upward. Today, they hold about half of all net wealth in America. As they pass it on, we’re entering a new era of inheritance-led wealth creation.

Smaller families mean fewer heirs, people are living longer and accumulating more, and inheritance taxes have eased in many countries. Together, this has created what some economists are calling an “inheritocracy”—a system where what you inherit increasingly determines your financial footing.

The impact on housing is especially striking. For many young buyers, help from family—whether through gifts or inheritances—can make the difference between renting indefinitely and owning a home. One study suggests it boosts homeownership among the young by more than a third. For those without that support, buying remains a far steeper climb.

And this inheritance wave isn’t slowing. Annual transfers are expected to rise until at least 2036, shaping housing markets, wealth inequality, and family dynamics for the next decade and beyond.

In a world of rising inheritances, personal wealth is is increasingly defined not just by income, but by family legacy.

Another "supertall" coming for the Upper West Side? On West 66th Street (the site of the old ABC studios), demolition prep has begun for what could soon reshape the skyline: a proposed 90-story, 1,200-foot residential tower by Extell. If built, it would be the tallest building in the neighborhood by far and an unmistakable new landmark.

For now, scaffolding and netting cloak the block as crews ready the site. Demolition alone is expected to continue into 2026. Extell, which acquired the parcels for $931 million in 2022, is moving forward under “as of right” zoning tied to ABC’s long-standing studios, a designation that allows development without going through the city’s lengthy public land-use review process. This permits both the scale and density of the project.

Renderings envision a glass tower rising from a multi-story podium, with shallow setbacks and stepped terraces at its crown. It’s a bold departure for a neighborhood long defined by pre-war towers and cultural institutions — and one that’s certain to spark debate.

The Upper West Side skyline, historically shaped by its institutions and landmarked architecture, may soon gain a striking new supertall neighbor.

From monumental sculpture to immersive installation, here are three NYC shows worth a stop this fall.

I’ve visited the Sagrada Família twice over the past couple of decades, and each time was fascinating. Watching the evolution of Gaudí’s masterpiece, I kept imagining what the final form might look like. While Gaudí has never been my “favorite” architect, his work has always struck me as mesmerizing, engaging, and so distinctively rooted in nature.

Now, nearly a century after Gaudí’s death, his once-impossible vision is finally reaching completion. This month, a 55-foot cross will be placed atop the soaring Jesus tower, making the basilica not only Barcelona’s tallest structure, but the tallest church in the world.

Gaudí never intended his masterpiece to outdo God. He designed the church to be just a bit shorter, by a few feet, than Montjuïc, the hill that overlooks Barcelona’s harbor. He believed no human-made structure should surpass what he saw as God’s creation in nature.

Yet in its climb upward, the Sagrada Família has become something beyond architecture. Gaudí’s most audacious dream is devotion in physical form, a cathedral that breathes with faith, tradition, reverence, spectacle, and certainly no shortage of debate along the way.

For more than a hundred years, Barcelona has lived with this unfinished silhouette. Soon, the skyline will change forever.

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