For homebuyers, the best measure of the real rate is the gap between the average mortgage rate and annual wage growth.

ECONOMIST: Buttonwood

And if a devaluation cannot be used to reduce real wages, the real exchange rate overvaluation will be undone via a slow and painful process of wage and price deflation.

FORBES: Friedman and Roubini on the Euro Breakup

Consumers have shrugged off the housing slowdown thus far: real consumer spending is still growing at annual rate of some 3%, thanks largely to strong job and wage growth.

ECONOMIST: America's housing market