Overall spending on luxury goods and services rose 29.4% from the second quarter to the third quarter of 2009, according to Unity Marketing's Luxury Consumption Index.  In all but three of the 22 product and service categories included in the company’s latest Luxury Tracking survey of 1,067 affluent consumers (average income $228,800), they spent more from quarter to quarter. However, this uptick might just reflect a release in pent-up demand and the level of spending may not carry over to subsequent quarters, according to Pam Danziger, president of Unity Marketing and lead researcher in the luxury tracking study. Increased spending in the luxury market was driven by those at the highest-income levels ($250,000 and higher), while affluent consumers in the $100,000 to $149,999 range were reluctant to trade up to luxury, she noted. See the Data Corner section for more about the mindset of affluent consumers.