<p>We show that there exists a separable, nuclear <i>C</i>*-algebra with real rank zero and trivial <i>K</i>-theory such that its multiplier and corona algebra have real rank one. This disproves two conjectures of Brown and Pedersen.</p><p>We also compute the real rank of the stable multiplier algebra and the stable corona algebra of countably decomposable type I_∞ and type II_∞ factors. Together with results of Zhang this completes the computation of the real rank for stable multiplier and corona algebras of countably decomposable factors.</p>