What a House Cost in 1880

The specimen book's designs come priced — that is half the point of it now. Below, the printed estimates beside a rough translation into today's dollars (consumer prices have multiplied about thirty-fold since 1880).

The thirty-fold figure is a blunt instrument: it tracks groceries better than land, lumber or labor, and none of these houses could be built at any price without the carpenters of 1880. Treat the right-hand column as a squint, not a quote.