High Points in the High Life

There are lots of reasons why the adjective “executive’” works well in combination with “lifestyles.” It’s a different level of consumer, generally one with refined tastes for the finer things in life. From the homes they live in to the vacation destinations they select, from their cars of choice to the pastimes that help recharge on weekends, here are some of those finer things and the trends defining them as we near the midpoint of 2025. 

The Executive Home

The Institute for Luxury Home Marketing—yes, it’s a thing—recently issued an update of conditions around the United States, lasering in on issues near and dear to the nation’s executive community.

It was, in some respects, a good news/bad news update.

“Equally, we are seeing a contrast in the actions of those involved in the design of luxury real estate vs. those who are building them,” the institute reported. “On one hand, renowned architects and designers are redefining high-end living with a focus on wellness, sustainability, and personalized design. On the other, builders and developers are grappling with rising costs, economic uncertainty, and shifting buyer behavior that’s forcing a reconsideration of new construction strategies.”

As that conflict shakes out, though, executive homes—whether they’re built new from the ground up or major renovation projects—is itself being updated as technology, design and materials redefine that lifestyle segment. The upshot of that? Executive homes, despite being priced three times the average new-home prices, are selling considerably faster, remaining on the market for less than three weeks.

Among the most recent trends:

At Work at Home: It wasn’t just the pandemic that made working from home popular; executives are so digitally connected they can engage with the office anywhere, any time. That includes home, where designs for new construction factor in customized work spaces that are tech-enabled and outfitted with ergonomic work stations and furniture, modular/adjustable shelving, sound-proofing (a must if you’re working while kids are out of school)—everything you need to quickly finish the work at hand and get back to enjoying the rest of your domain.

Smarter Selections: Tech advances in everything from energy generation to home security are making today’s executive home look like something out of The Jetsons. (Some of you may have to look that one up.) Whole-home automation is the thing today, with systems that regulate lighting and window blinds, voice-activated heating/cooling, entertainment systems, kitchen appliances and more. There are wi/fi enabled deadbolts for keyless entry, variable lighting to set the mood in every room, voice-controlled thermostats that also can be reset remotely on your phone, robotic vacuum and mopping devices, refrigerators that will create shopping reminders—and much of it coming with built-in translation services, if needed.

Health and Fitness: Move over, gym and club memberships—the personal wellness space is as close as the next room, and can include infrared saunas, cold-water tubs, weightlifting stations, space for individual and small-group activities like yoga, cardio machines and digital displays to connect your stationary bike/treadmill/stair-stepper experience to live instructors and programmed activities for groups. While older homes will require remodeling or retrofitting to accommodate such spaces, they’re basic elements in new construction design.

Blending In and Out: The executive home isn’t constrained by its exterior walls. Living spaces now accommodate indoor and outdoor activities, even transforming spaces “in” to “out.” How? Try retractable walls, patios with separate heating sources and controls, and fully loaded outdoor kitchens with a barbecue grills, refrigerators, sinks and running water, pizza ovens and dishwashers. Especially in a four-season climate like we enjoy here, outside living beckons, built around lavish furnishings, amenities like fire pits and built-in flower beds, or expansive second-story decks for a large majority of the year.

Home Sweet Homes: It’s called multi-generational living, and it’s not an entirely new concept—immigrant families more than a century ago often remained intact across three generations (or more). But they didn’t do it with the types of spaces now found in executive-level homes, ranging from guest suites inside the main building to separate guest houses or divided spaces with their own entrances. It keeps those closest to you … well, close, but not too close. 

Cooking in Style: Space—and the efficient use of it—often separates the executive home from all others. Case in point: secondary prep kitchens, also known as sculleries, where the heavy lifting of meal execution, cleanup and storage is done away from the main-event space. Walk-in pantries are a must, but today’s kitchen spaces also incorporate concealed refrigerators and dishwashers. Stovetop/oven combos, often starting at five figures and up, can feature six or eight burners and separate-temperature ovens to accommodate multiple meal courses at various stages of preparation, so that your dinner party achieves time-on-table coordination with military precision. 

Bedroom Basics: Those who survived the Waterbed Era can only marvel at how technology has improved the platforms for a great night’s sleep. It starts with adjustable beds—with customized settings to accommodate a couple’s different preferences—which elevate the head or feet, as needed, and help relieve pressure on one’s airways and pressure points. Plenty of memory foam is often layered over appropriate support from responsive interior mattress coils, all covered in high thread-count sheets of cotton or wool. The walk-in closet? That’s so 1980s. Today’s executive homes elevate the concept of storage to an art form, with adjustable lighting, lots of adjustable custom shelves and retractable doors and panels. 

Getting Personal: Today’s bathroom isn’t a pit stop on the way to your day; it’s a sanctuary that doubles as a personal spa, adding an element of luxury to the otherwise mundane. Heated flooring? Check. Stone-lined walk-in rain showers? Check. Freestanding tubs, even bidets? Check. Those are just a few items that are often supplemented with vanities that can measure in square yards, imported stone and tiles, variable lighting systems, individual personal sinks and other touches

Sports & The Outdoors

When it comes to major-league sports attendance in this market, nothing says you’ve succeeded in business quite like the suits at Kauffman or Arrowhead stadiums to catch either the Royals or Chiefs in action.

At The K, for example, Royals Signature Suite was recently available for the July 23 outing with the New York Mets for a snappy $5,100 …  plus $30 in fees. The Chiefs don’t post suite prices on their site, but unlike the Royals’ 81 home games, a more limited NFL schedule lends itself to season-long rentals for commercial customers. According to the Suite Experience Group, single-game suites at Arrowhead can be had for between $15,000 and $30,000. Yes, per game.

Something more in line with a small business owner’s income might be the UMB Field Club suite at Children’s Mercy Park, taking in a Sporting KC soccer game. It boasts field-level seating, including climate-controlled, an all-inclusive premium buffet and bar, VIP parking with private entry and right of first refusal on U.S. Open Cup, Leagues Cup, CONCACAF Champions Cup, and MLS Cup playoff matches.

Away from the stadium? Well, the options are as big as The Great Outdoors itself. 

Take boating and the lake life. Even at the executive level, there’s increasing demand for multi-purpose watercraft, as easy to handle on a fishing excursion as it is for open-water skiing. Today’s boats can feature autonomous navigation systems and automated docking functions, tricked-out bar-refrigerator-sink combos, and predictive-maintenance tools. As for the infrastructure around the boat itself, technology again steps in with change. From automated docks and lifts to operating systems enhanced for greater energy efficiency, boating is becoming more accessible to those who don’t know an anchor from a twin-prop configuration. While we’re on this aquatic topic, there’s an interface with the home design features noted above—ready rooms. For luxury lakefront homes, these spaces accommodate wet clothes, towels and swimwear (often with secondary washers and dryers separate from the main laundry facilities). Their biggest selling point may be reducing the amount of sand tracked into main living areas.

On the golf course, gone are the days of buying a set of clubs ostensibly “tailored” for your physique, frame, swing and style of play. These days, you can choose from zero-torque putters to yield greater stability. through your stroke, AI-enabled club fitting tolls to analyze your swing and body mechanics. Or consider alignment-enhanced golf balls, with the built-in tech to provide the kind of advice on ball paths, adjustments to your swing or stance, and help you visualize your aim and the roll or spin on a ball. In the same vein, smart gloves provide biometric feedback that measure stress and fatigue levels, or chart variations in the strength of your grip between the first tee and the 19th hole. And for those monster fairways, consider automatic range finders to help determine placement for your tee shot.

On the Road

In some ways, the national mood on vehicle ownership has always validated that urge—hidden or fully exposed—to show off juuuuust a tad with higher end vehicles. Earlier this spring Visual Capitalist validated that with its 2025 list of luxury vehicles preferred by wealthy Americans—No. 1 Tesla had a 2-1 lead over its nearest competitor, so it’s likely that Elon Musk has seen his advantage cut back. But the site says the next three models in the popularity contest are a pair of German-made lines (BMW, Mercedes Benz) and Great Britain’s Land Rover. Those four brands alone account for roughly 43 percent of the luxury market. There’s more to it than just showing off, though: These are vehicles that, in most cases, are built for a different driving experience, with varying degrees of reliability and ruggedness.

While those higher-end models have long had a particular appeal to earthbound jet-setters, even among the wealthy, they aren’t often first choice. According to finance guru Dave Ramsey, the most popular models driven by millionaires are, in order, Toyota, Honda, Ford, Lexus, Subaru, BMW, Acura, Hyundai, Lincoln and Buick. 

Surprised? Don’t be, he says: “Most millionaires don’t drive flashy cars,” he says. That might be because nearly 7 in 10 in that wealth cohort “did not average $100,000 or more in household income per year-and (get this) one-third of millionaires NEVER had a six-figure household income in their entire careers. When people don’t waste money trying to LOOK wealthy, they have money to actually BECOME wealthy.”

Regardless of the make or model, higher-end users expect some higher-level amenities. Such as touch screens that rival your grandparents’ first black-and-white TV in screen size (12.3 inches), while offering touch-screen functionality and unbeatable resolution, with wi/fi capability built in. Parking-assistance and lane-guidance systems are almost a must, and many drivers are delighted to see the responsiveness of AI tech that customizes climate controls, entertainment systems, seat and mirror settings, night headlight intensity and other functions.

Executive Travel

Ever since the term “experiential” hit the travel sector, it seems, those with the means to not just see the world, but touch, feel and tame it, have pushed the boundaries on vacation destinations. Almost anyone who wants to can get to Aruba or Acapulco, Cabo or the Caymans these days, but to actually hike to base camp of Annapurna in Nepal? That’s not exactly keeping up with the Joneses’ week in the Ozarks. You can choose from dune-buggy excursions in the Namibian desert (don’t forget to check out the Skeleton Coast shipwrecks nearby), exploring the fringes of the Antarctic, or snowmobiling across glaciers in Iceland. As for affordability, such trips can come in at between $6,800 and $13,600 or more—and yes, that’s per person. While it might be a once-in-a-lifetime trip at that amount, the memories and photos you bring back will be priceless. Closer to home, Kansas City’s executive community has both its extended-vacation habits and its shorter-term getaways, a surprising number of them with Lake of the Ozarks as their prime destination. In most cases, that destination has a specific address, with ownership of vacation homes. The vast majority of the 70,000 lakefront homes there are owner-occupied or second homes, but thousands of others are available for rent—and we’re not talking about rustic cabins here. A significant number of high-end rentals go for well more than $1,000 a night for two- or three-bedroom units to accommodate the whole family. Recent Airbnb listings for lake front rentals in Sunrise Beach, Versailles and Rocky Mount for the July 4 week, for example, topped $11,000.