Well, we naively measure house prices in dollars only. Smart people measure prices in real dollars (i.e., inflation-adjusted), which is much better.
But since the dollar has lost so much value relative to gold, the Euro, oil, etc., you would be surprised to see how much California housing prices have changed from 1998 to 2005 if you were to measure them in gold oz., or in oil barrels, etc.
I agree with Bugs that this is not as straightfoward as it sounds, because many of these metals/commodities are highly volatile.
