Yes. To a point. November though February still sucked. Who the fuck wants to remodel during Christmas or Thanksgiving. And good luck trying to put up siding in January/February weather.
The construction industry wasn't completely saturated with illegals. Now in construction the only non-illegals you'll find are ones in specialized skilled jobs, ie electricians, masons, engineers, surveyors etc. but now there are illegals are creeping in because -- just have it inspected and signed off on by an American company and you're good, if the journeyman/labor is illegal who's gonna know? Now you'll have illegal plumbers, electricians, masons, etc. Long gone are the "tu gringo puta" roofing crew.
Drive by any construction site and I bet you'll see nothing but illegals/dreamers doing the grunt/semi-skilled work. It's the only way they can keep costs down. Lumber was through the roof for the last 8 months and to the point where it shut down projects.
But, the reason why the old days were like that was largely due to an economy that was functional and inflationary repercussions were held to a minimum. And people were accepting that if you spent too much money in credit purchases you would fuck yourself in the long run. Now, it's the exact opposite.
The name of the game now IS credit spending. Get the job first, spend what you have to complete it and dump it on the market. With the real estate market as it is in most places, any construction cost overage will be covered by the increased sale price, and you still will make profit.