Cost of labor quite higher here. Especially house work. Any licensed person to work in your house you're looking at paying $200 minimum just to walk in the door. At least in the major metro areas.
For small repairs (light switches, blown fuses, faucets, installing water heaters, cutting down trees, cleaning gutters), before I started doing them myself, I called friends who knew what they were doing, usually 50-something year old men who were jack of all trades.