Too funny.. and frightening.
A fellow shift-mate of mine had Erie give him a quote on the fancy metal/shingle "lifetime" roof. His estimate was also $80K. His home is ~2000sq/feet. This is in the Buffalo NY area.
He wound up having a local company tear off and replace with 50yr architectural shingles. It cost him around $16K.
Are there really blue collar-ish folks that are going to bite on an $80K roof? His house was a $120K home 10yrs ago.
It might make more sense to some to spend $80K on a lifetime roof than for a depreciating asset like a full size 4x4 crew cab pickup or Jeep Grand Cherokee Summit. Plenty of folks willing to pony up for high end sports cars and luxury SUVs, regardless of today's economy. That behavior is still keeping new vehicle selling prices above MSRP.