Howa's used to be a great inexpensive way to go for a donor action for a custom build. You could buy them used for $275-$300 complete. Then everyone figured out how good they were and now they cost almost as much as a Rem 700.
Bought a used Howa lightning 270win for $300 three yrs ago. Thru the cheap plastic stock away, put a Timney trigger in it and had it rebarreled to a 6.5-06AI and it's a death ray shooting Berger 140's at 3150fps.