This is not because housebuilding has become more technically complicated and cars haven’t but because the big cost is getting government permission to build – not a problem in hinterland China. This, in turn happens because houses, being big and stationary, are an easy target for state parasites, while cars go where they want. In general we have seen progress in the small and exportable industries – computers, cell phones (they only stated getting cheap when they became mobile), information. They have stayed expensive, or non-existent where they would be large or visible – houses, jet packs, nuclear power plants. Or where we humans are vulnerable to false scare stories & will stand for large government bureaucracies “protecting” us – child care, global warming, nuclear power, medicine (I believe we would have made serious progress in chemically reversing aging by now if medical research didn’t cost $1 bn to approve anything).

Based on housing costs I would say we would all be 4 times better off now without such parasitism. With electricity I can make the case for 50 time (ie 98% of the cost could be cut if we were allowed mass produced modular nuclear reactors with “safety” costs about matching those required in building 747s.

China has far less housing control and electricity costs about 1/4 of the US, which explains their 10% annual growth.