If I spend most (all?) of my money on a house, I  need to reduce spending on things like food - means I look for great prices - check Costco shopping lately? House prices need to come down a whole lot more before I can spend on other things - means "deflation" will continue.....people are unwilling to pay more for goods and services because such a huge percentage of costs are absorbed by Housing...not sure why nobody wants to talk about the big white elephant in the room...DEFLATION...there I said it.