Strange.
Well ported cast iron heads have been around that price range for 50 years..
If where to ask me how much it would cost you to do a set of 2.02 360 heads flowing around 250-260 CFM... I would tell you...around a thousand bucks.
Anything else out there that's ready to run 4 Less technically is not a good head out of the box. Speedmaster aluminum heads are not good heads out of the box....they flow like stock until .400 lift...they kinda suck.