In New York, Jonathan Miller, president and chief executive of appraisal firm Miller Samuel, said an apartment with a view of Manhattan's Central Park can sell for 50% more than one in the same building without the view.

WSJ: What's a View Worth?

Standing on the apartment's balcony, Youssif's father turned to Barbara Friedman, executive director of the Children's Burn Foundation.

CNN: Youssif and family arrive in U.S.: 'Am I in heaven?'

"We are moving into a new phase of the multifamily housing cycle, a more typical phase, characterized by higher levels of apartment supply and incrementally greater competition from for-sale housing, " David Stockert, chief executive of Post Properties Inc.

WSJ: Malls, Self-Storage Led REITs in First Quarter

He's been an off-site chief executive ever since he bought his first RV maker in 1977, when he rented a one-room apartment with a single light and a black-and-white TV above a pizza parlor in Butler, Ohio (pop. 921) and commuted every week from New York.

FORBES: Lord of the Rigs