Back in 1982 I was a third-year broker/branch manager with Dean Witter Reynolds (remember that name?) when the announcement came across the tape that Sears, Roebuck, and Co. would in one fell-swoop buy Dean Witter and Coldwell Banker, the real estate giant. Wow, Sears was diversifying in a huge, dramatic way. That move spawned the expression "buy your stocks where you buy your socks!" Dean Witter brokers, Allstate agents (Sears already owned Allstate) and Coldwell Banker agents, all to be found within a Sears department store. The whole thing was a flop, but it took nearly ten years to figure this out.

In the mix, Sears CEO and chairman, Ed Telling, selected a young McKenzie & Co. consultant to run the triumvirate. His name was Philip Purcell and he brought an intelligence and energy to the job second to none. He carefully explained that the glue to the whole thing working out masterfully would be the launch of the Discover card. The Discover card was launched in 1984 with a mega advertising and marketing campaign. If you had a pulse, you got a card.

In the early 1990s, Sears realized the "synergies" of Dean Witter, Dean Witter , and Coldwell Banker just was not working according to the dream. The dream took on a new look as all three companies were spun off or went public. The association with Sears became just a memory. Then in 1997, Phil Purcell engineered the coup of coups: merging "Main Street" Dean Witter with glitterati firm Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS). Phil was named CEO, another masterful coup. All the while, the Discover card was building itself into a formidable business. The Morgan Stanley white shoe bankers "certainly did not have one in their wallets" was the quote most often heard as the Morgan bankers were annoyed with this low-level credit card.

Is there any more important rule in real estate than, "location, location, location"? In case you've been living under a rock, that's the answer to the question, "What are the three most important factors in buying a home?" The basic idea is that it's not the Sub-Zero fridge, the spacious deck, or the fancy faucets that dictate whether a home will hold its value. What matters most is where it's located.

USA Today proves the point yet again today with new findings from a Coldwell Banker survey. The survey looked at similar houses -- all with four bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, a family room and a two car garage -- and compares how much they cost in 384 markets around the world.

The most affordable place in the U.S. is Minot, North Dakota, where a four-bedroom home lists for $132,000. The least? Beverly Hills, Calif, where the price tag is $1.8 million. Take the trends abroad and you can pay $1.8 million for that kind of house in Milan, Italy, or just $56,500 in Bogota, Columbia. The average sale price in the U.S. is $424,000 (you can parse all the data here).

What good does this information do you? Well, if you just paid $2 million for a split-level in Greenwich, Conn., and are worried you bought at the peak, this data may make you feel better. At least you bought in a premium location that will hopefully hold its value.

Better yet, if you are thinking of trading down, a handy tool at the Coldwell Banker site allows you to crunch this data and see how much a home comparable to your own would cost anywhere else in the country. For example, you can trade in that $2 million Greenwich home for a similar $278,000 house in Amarillo, Texas, should you one day decide to head to cattle country with plenty of free cash in hand.