I have a specific domain name that I would like to purchase. Both the .com and .net versions are owned by different people. I have contacted both owners, and here are the price tags:
.com - $25,000
.net - $4,000
Or I could purchase the .us domain name for $10. There's no way I would consider paying that amount for the .com but I might consider the 4K for the .net. My question is, do you know of any research which compares the various extensions and speaks to their relative value?
There is no value assigned to a domain suffix. The value is purely a value that they assign to it. They think you'll pay it, so they ask for it. Take the .us domain and run with it.
There are many online articles on these merits (eg. http://webdesign.about.com/od/domains/a/dot_com_versus_dot_biz.htm. I would go with the .us and put some decent design into place to get your search rank higher. There are new TLDs popping up all the time so having the .com or .net address is not as important as it once was.