I live in the Appalachian mountains, so one would think it should be reasonable labor rates for an area with a middle-low cost of living.

Except that we have a lake the next town over which is entirely covered in millionaire lake houses, so anyone working a trade here can and will charge obscene rates to local, normal people because they can command that rate from a rich transplant that is price insensitive.

You can occasionally find a good, reasonable guy or company still, but you’ll be calling around for days to find them.

Having previously spent a decade in a hot-market (Charleston, SC) you’ll find similar stories, there are plenty of workers in the area, but they’re almost always expecting to charge rates to wealthy price-insensitive transplants.