Maybe I should grow balsa trees....nah - I am in Wisconsin.
The increases have a lot to do with increased labor costs.
China is getting more expensive, the cost of living and need of workers
forces companies to pay more.

If they keep going it this pace, goods will be to expensive to ship and sell overseas in just a few years.
They might be importing our products later.

The cost of balsa has not had too much of an impact as the LHS guy wants you to believe.
It is still cheaper to buy an ARF then an incomplete kit, both made of balsa and some ply.

I grew up in Germany and had to save up for a long time to buy an rc plane, ARFs were outrageously expensive.
When I came to the US, I was surprised on how cheap everything was.

So with about 25 planes and 3 helicopters on the shelf I won't complain about the prices.
There is lots of competition between the manufacturers and it does not seem to be a controlled market.

To me it just don't make any sense that a kit costs a lot more then an already build plane.
I understand people don;t like to build anymore, but still - any plane started as a kit and shipping a small box of sticks
is a lot cheaper then an arf.