Among the banks that rule Wall Street, Citigroup got a bailout that was bigger than the rest. Now the company is about to pay a king's ransom for its federal rescue.

The Obama administration is making final preparations to sell its stake in the New York bank, according to industry and federal sources. At today's prices, the sale would net more than $8 billion, by far the largest profit returned from any firm that accepted bailout funds, and the transaction would be the second-largest stock sale in history.

On paper, the government's 27 percent stake has grown in value to $33 billion. The size of the deal in the works has Wall Street buzzing. Only the stock offering by Japan's Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, which raised $36.8 billion in 1987, was larger, according to Thomson Reuters.

Leading financial firms, including J.P. Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, are vying to be chosen as the deal's underwriters to gain the prestige of managing a historic stock sale as well as the fees from investors who buy the shares. To improve their chances, some banks, such as Goldman Sachs, are offering their services to the Treasury Department at almost no cost, industry officials familiar with the matter said.

The windfall expected from the stock sale would amount to a validation of the rescue plan adopted by government officials during the height of the financial panic, when the banking system neared the brink of collapse. A year ago, Citigroup's stock hovered around a dollar a share, and the bank's future seemed in doubt. On Friday, the stock closed at $4.31.

Central Valley real estate agent Donny Piwowarski last year sold his four-bedroom, 3,500-square-foot house on a half-acre in Tracy for $387,000 — about half of what he paid for it in 2005. Now with tax-filing season here, his situation is getting even grimmer.

Under California tax law, Piwowarski owes tens of thousands of dollars in state income tax on the nearly $400,000 in mortgage debt that was "canceled" when he sold his house for less than what he owed. The state considers canceled debt as taxable income in cases like Piwowarski's and for thousands of other Californians who got rid of their homes last year in so-called "short sales."

By now, the Obama administration was supposed to have a plan to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the "government-sponsored" mortgage finance enterprises (GSEs) that have been under federal control — and absorbing $126 billion in federal cash — for the past 19 months.

But last week Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner told the House Financial Services Committee that all he can promise is a "public comment" period starting April 15, in which the various housing interest groups — and there are a lot of them — can submit their ideas. Thereafter, at an unspecified "time of greater market stability," legislation can be drafted, introduced and passed.

In short, after a year of discussion, Mr. Geithner promises more discussion.

Who are the people setting the agenda in the U.S. real estate market? As Bloomberg BusinessWeek found out, the answer is complicated and can be approached only from a range of perspectives. We spoke with industry experts about an array of functions—economists, government officials, heads of industry organizations, bankers, insurers, brokers, homebuilders, property managers, investors, and property owners—and selected 50 people we believe are leading the economic recovery or carry particular clout in shaping the landscape for homeownership.

This report focuses on the residential sector, but we could not avoid including some of the country's largest investors in commercial and retail properties who play an important role in overall real estate. As scale and influence go hand and hand, many of the people listed run some of the country’s largest companies; others manage millions of acres of land. Yet power does not come only from size; it also comes from thinking—noted economists and academics, for example, provide critical intelligence and advice to policymakers. Of course, the government has expanded its role in homeownership and officials have tremendous authority. Some individuals on the list have been on the job for little more than a few months, while others have done it for decades. Still, all currently hold positions in which their decisions and actions will affect homeowners and real estate professionals.

The Phoenix Business Journal surveyed a number of commercial real estate professionals about the lessons learned from the boom and bust of real estate:

As you look back on the boom-and-bust cycles affecting the commercial real estate market in the past decade, what lessons have you learned and how will that affect decisions and plans for the future?

Craig Henig

Senior managing director and Arizona market leader, CB Richard Ellis.

This downturn has had a much greater reach than those we’ve experienced before. This time, not only was commercial real estate impacted, but residential real estate, automakers, financial institutions, insurance companies and a host of other industry sectors found they were no longer bulletproof.

What this has taught us is that we need to be more strategic in our business plans, how we grow our industry and operate our companies. We do not want to be caught unprepared or without a contingency plan again. In the next downturn, we hopefully will have implemented better safeguards that will give us a much softer landing.

James Pederson

Chairman, Pederson Group Inc.

My company experienced its first big growth spurt during the latter stages of the recession of the late 1980s and early ’90s. The lesson I learned is that all economic cycles provide opportunity, and I don’t expect our current downturn to be any different. The recent devaluation of many commercial properties around town is certainly painful, but it does present unparalleled opportunity for entrepreneurial and creative development firms. We are looking forward to those opportunities and hope to capitalize on them.