It may be impossible to unwind the causal relation between the growing global circuit of Ultra High Net Worth Individuals. But this weekend’s story in the New York Times about homeowners now thinking in terms of having a portfolio of residences instead of a primary home certainly fits with some of the important themes contributing to the growth of the Contemporary art market.

Robert Frank, the article’s author, quotes a Miami real estate broker as naming that portfolio the ‘four pack’ before he goes on to describe a migratory patterns that fit almost perfectly with the New York and London auction calendars as well as the art fair circuit that has grown around it.

Here Frank quotes the dean of New York real estate appraisers, Jonathan Miller:

The reason, he says, is that more of his clients these days have a “portfolio of homes” that they bounce around to from month to month. “For an overseas buyer, New York is the place they buy for when the wife wants to go on a shopping trip, or for a place for their kids to stay when they’re in school,” he said. “The world’s wealth is coming to New York.”

The American rich, he says, are moving from second-home ownership to more of a hub-and-spoke model. New York serves as a base for seasonal migrations to Miami, the Hamptons and Aspen.

He said the “circuit” starts in New York in the fall, then moves to Miami in the winter, with a couple of weeks in Aspen for skiing. Then it’s back to New York in the spring before hitting the Hamptons in July and August. In Los Angeles, the wealthy head to the mountains — often to Aspen — for skiing in the winter or to Hawaii or Mexico. Floridians head to the Hamptons in the summer, or to southern Europe.

If It’s March, It Must Be Miami: When Home Changes With the Season (The New York Times)