I find myself almost always upgrading both Village Halls and Forts in my starting city. Is this standard practice? It seems the benefits are great, but I am very new to the game yet.

I Always make my first priority the capital but I also try to have at least 3 dwelling by the end of the first week. It's not a bad strategy.

Basically the higher difficulty, the higher priority goes to village/town/city hall. On lower difficulties you have more than enough money for dwellings and monsters in the beginning, on higher ones (especially impossible) you have less starting gold, or none at all, so money earning building is very important.

Yeah upgrading the fort/castle on the way to building a capitol ASAP helps provide the money to do everything else.
As dungeon, I try to get the city hall going and both archer buildings in the first week. That takes up 7 days.