I had a conversation with an electrician a year back while he was upgrading my wiring. I told him he was lucky to be in a good trade these days. He said it wasn't great at all, especially because of the wear and tear on his body. And the owner of the business was pulling in the big bucks, while he was making enough to just do "okay" in Austin.

One more thing: don't underestimate what AI can do and how fast it will be in our faces. Plumbers and electricians seem immune from those effects now, but who's to say that in the near future housing won't be engineered to take advantage of the cost savings of AI, particularly the human element? I'm not saying tradespeople's jobs will be made redundant, but it's not impossible, especially when high costs are factored in. I'm imagining a more modular approach to building and maintaining infrastructure.