SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — Home builders are seeing impacts on costs because of tariffs. Costs have gone up for materials like lumber, steel, and glass, and President Trump has announced new tariffs starting Wednesday.
Starting Oct. 1, there will be a 50 percent tariff on kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities and a 30 percent tariff on imported upholstered furniture. Experts say that cost will eventually fall on buyers in the Bay Area.
The cost of building a home isn’t cheap in the Bay Area and the founder of Prepair in San Francisco, Sharon Clark, works with sellers on updating their homes that are for sale.
Clark has heard several complaints from workers in the industry about construction costs going up because of new tariffs put in place by President Trump. New tariffs will be implemented this week, on things such as kitchen cabinets and vanities.
“What really caught my eye when I saw this news story was bathroom vanities because we replace bathroom vanities all the time so those are probably going to get more expensive,” Clark said.
The president has attributed tariffs to the need to keep more business in the U.S. A reason backed by the American Kitchen Cabinet Alliance, which says 250,000 cabinet jobs will be saved.
Clark doesn’t see a shift to more U.S. buying, but if it does happen, she predicts even higher prices.
“We have minimum wages, we have benefits and insurance and all these other costs that have to be covered by American companies,” Clark said.
Clark predicts that tariffs will cause a reduction in demand.
When it comes to how this will affect home prices, Bay East Association of Realtors President Tracey Esling isn’t seeing an increase — yet.
“I think we’re going to see them definitely raise prices of homes, but I don’t think that’s going to be right now. I would say you’re going to see that in 2026,” Esling said.
Esling says during the pandemic, builders learned to stock up on items, and she predicts that will happen this year because of tariffs.
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