A recent item in the local paper explains why $300,000 fishing boats
are finding buyers and why new 45-footers can command prices north of
$1mm.

In my local county there are now 68,000 households with net worth in
excess of a million dollars, *excluding* equity in a personal
residence. (If they didn't exclude home equity, that figure would be
several times higher).

According to the same item, some of the investment brokerges are
redefining "highly qualified" investor for purposes of risk tolerance
assessment. The old standard for many was that an investor be a
"millionaire" (net worth of seven figures excluding home equity), but
since you can now have liquid assets of $1mm and still be considered
upper middle class that standard is being moved to $2.5mm or higher at
many firms. One brokerage house reserves its premium services for
clients with nets of $10mm or more, lumping the rest of the mere
millionaires into a group they call "moderately affluent". :-)

None of this involves me, of course. I can calculate my net worth on
any particular day by reaching into my pocket and adding up the value
of the dimes and quarters jingling around.

But it does explain why boats priced at 6, 8, 10 and 20 times more
than an "average" annual salary of about $50k
have no problem selling and why so many marinas are reconfiguring as
rapidly as they can to increase the number of 50-60 foot slips.
There's plenty of money out there, (somewhere!). :-)