Posted on: Sunday, October 14, 2007
Expensive homes most common in California cities
Compiled by John MacIntyre
Rank of Beverly Hills, Calif., among the most-expensive real estate markets in the United States, according to a survey of 400 cities conducted by Coldwell Banker: 1
Average price of a single-family house in Beverly Hills with four bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, 2,200 square feet of space and a two-car garage: $2.2 million
Number of California cities in the top 10: 8
SPLIT GAINS NOTICE
Percentage of Americans who say that American society is divided into two groups, the "haves" and the "have-nots," according to a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press: 48
Percentage of Americans in 1988 who said that American society is divided into two groups, the "haves" and the "have-nots": 26
MORE BUYING POWER
Ranks of the salaries of managers in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in terms of the purchasing power of their salaries, according to a 46-nation study conducted by the Hay Group: 1, 2
Rank of the United States: 24
Buying power of a U.S. manager's average annual salary when taxes and costs of living are taken into account: $104,905
Approximate buying power for managers in Russia, Turkey and Mexico, all of which ranked higher than the United States: $150,000
HOT DUDS
Ranks of princess (10.7 percent), Spider-Man (4.8 percent), pirate (4.7 percent), witch (4.2 percent) and fairy (2.8 percent) among the popular costumes for children, according to a survey by the National Retail Federation: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Ranks of witch (16.9 percent), pirate (3.8 percent), vampire (3.1 percent), cat (2.5 percent) and princess (2.2 percent) among the most popular costumes for adults: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
SILENCE WHILE EATING
Percentage of people who said that cell phones should either be turned off completely, not answered and/or checked only during a free moment at a restaurant, according to a survey by Teletouch Communications Inc. and its Hawk Electronics Division: 90
Ranks of "talking too loudly on cell phones in public" and "forgetting to silence cell phones in quiet settings" as the behaviors that respondents found most annoying: 1, 2
IPOD MARKETS
Rank of Brazil among countries in which the 4GB iPod Nano costs the most, according to a survey conducted by Commonwealth Bank aimed at measuring purchasing power in 55 countries: 1
Average cost of an iPod nano in Brazil: $327.71
Ranks of India, Sweden and Denmark: 2, 3, 4
Average cost in the United States: $149
WIRED FOR WORK
Percentage of U.S. employees who say they volunteer to use a wireless device for work purposes in order to be accessible, according to a survey conducted by Yahoo! HotJobs: 49
Percentage who say they are required to: 29
BOOKS COME FIRST
Total amount college students are estimated to spend on textbooks for the 2007-08 academic year, according to a study conducted by the National Retail Federation: $15 billion
Total amount college students are estimated to spend on electronics for 2007-08: $12.8 billion
Total amount college students are estimated to spend on dorm and apartment furnishings: $5.4 billion
Total amount college students are estimated to spend on school supplies: $3.1 billion
BEST BUSINESS BUYS
Ranks of Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business, the University of California-Berkeley and Columbia University as the top-rated U.S. business schools, according to the "Seventh Annual Business School Survey" by Harris Interactive and The Wall Street Journal: 1, 2, 3
Ranks of Brigham Young University, Wake Forest and Ohio State as the top-rated regional business schools: 1, 2, 3
Ranks of ESADE (Barcelona, Spain), IMD (Lausanne, Switzerland) and the London Business School as the top-rated international business schools: 1, 2, 3
IDLE THOUGHT
"The real measure of our wealth is how much we'd be worth if we lost all our money."
— John Henry Jowett, preacher
Contact John MacIntyre at johnmacintyre@bwr.eastlink.ca
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