Off topic, what led you to snag "the_economist" for BuildZoom?

yes, that's probably about right (based on my remembrance leading product for cost estimators widely used in appraisal & assessment). construction costs tended to beat inflation by a bit, enough to compound to 50%-ish over 60-70 years.

That is attributed entirely to increased labor costs and almost all of that in increasingly large urban centers (which also have a lot of construction).

So basically.... Apples to apples it hasn't gone up. It's simply that people are buying more construction in urban areas.