I'm not sure about the pricing. Surprisingly, many props in Canada charging same for the last 3-7 years. Still, it's not like going from Cat 4 10,000 to Cat 5 16,000 (high season): 60%. Maybe $149 to $179 range.
And so called "bad economy" since 2007... I thin the reason is supply/demand: too easy to get points now: constant promos, AMEX, etc. Especially in the US. 10 years ago I stayed in Sheraton Rio Cat 2 (!) and used all my 26K points for the carnival week... Now it's Cat 5... -- will take me 1.5 night to kill them for carnival (high)... But I have almost 200K in my account after 2012 alone when I used all my points for 4 weeks Cat 5 (12K each)... I don't know...