They're not lying though when saying everything else skyrocketed. There's been shortages of everything.
With that said, labor shortage in the trades is probably the biggest culprit at this point. Even before the pandemic, in some areas you couldn't get a contractor to come in to do anything unless it was a massively profitable project. I had contractors walk away from 6 figure projects because they weren't big enough.
The pandemic made it a lot worse. Plumbers here are booked 6 weeks ahead for anything that isn't an emergency.
With that said, labor shortage in the trades is probably the biggest culprit at this point. Even before the pandemic, in some areas you couldn't get a contractor to come in to do anything unless it was a massively profitable project. I had contractors walk away from 6 figure projects because they weren't big enough.
The pandemic made it a lot worse. Plumbers here are booked 6 weeks ahead for anything that isn't an emergency.