Indeed. Not helping are all the "get a heat pump installed and receive a $6K rebate"s (which drive up the bid price by around $5K-$6K).

Yep, same story with solar rebates, most of it goes to the installer.

Home construction work is really interesting, because the transaction costs are so high around locating and comparing the service providers.

It is easy to say there isnt enough competition, but im not sure that is actually true. I think more likely is that most consumers dont collect 10+ quotes and compare, so the price signal is weak.

Second biggest issue with California is the contractors licensing system ended up creating a system of guilds.

First biggest is high rents drives up the cost of labor.

>First biggest is high rents drives up the cost of labor.

Tell me about it. I just got quoted 80k to landscape my residential backyard.

For 1 year of my take home salary.. I'll do it myself.

Yeah 40k of that 80k goes to the workers landlords.