Nor is it just a regional fluke here in the Southeast. A working guy I know in Boston, whom I first hired in 2009 off craigslist, switched to advertising on backpage when CL got rid of explicit escort ads.
Working in Boston and touring around New England, advertising solely on CL and then BP, by this past summer he had earned and saved enough money to make the down payment on a nice house in New Bedford.
Just from BP, he has built up quite the base of repeat clients, including numerous mature men of substantial means. (I know this not only from his reports, but by happening to know some of them socially myself. A nice small-town-like aspect of Boston -- everybody seems to know everybody.)