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Keeping up with President Trump’s shifting policies on tariffs has not been easy.
But even with the new trade policies not yet solidified, it’s clear that whatever happens will have an impact on real estate from multiple angles, industry leaders told Inman ahead retaliatory tariffs from China and elsewhere.
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Nearly one-quarter of roughly 1,000 American adults surveyed by Redfin are canceling plans to buy a home or car over fears about tariffs, the poll found. An additional 32 percent are putting those purchases on hold for now, but as the trade war intensifies the fallout could continue to grow, analysts told Inman.
“The one thing to be clear about — and I’ve been saying this for weeks — is that tariffs are attacks on the American consumer and that drives inflation,” appraiser Jonathan Miller said at an April 8 Elliman Town Hall on the tariffs.
The Trump administration implemented 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum in March, and a 25 percent tariff on automobiles and a 10 percent blanket tariff on most imports in early April. Lumber from Mexico and Canada is one item exempt from a 10 percent baseline tariff under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, but a 14.5 percent tariff on Canadian lumber first imposed by the Biden administration remains in effect.
Meanwhile, the administration also announced in early April “reciprocal” tariffs that vary by country of up to 50 percent. Shortly after announcing them, the administration said they would be on hold until July 9. It’s unclear if those tariffs will be renegotiated in the meantime.
All this has caused a great deal of uncertainty among Americans and the global community at large. From canceling transaction plans to challenges with new construction to shifts with foreign buyers and more, the tariffs have already caused a chain reaction in the real estate market.
High prices and uncertainty give pause at home
Federal Reserve chair Jerome H. Powell warned in remarks at the Economic Club of Chicago last week that the Trump administration’s policies on tariffs could lead to higher inflation and slower growth, suggesting interest rate cuts may be hard to come by in the future, which drew the president’s ire and threats to remove Powell as chair.
Powell’s remarks precipitated a sell-off in stocks that day, with the S&P 500 ending down more than 2 percent. Tariffs are paid by U.S. companies that buy imported goods. But those costs are typically passed down to the consumer through higher prices.
Jonathan Miller
“I’m not seeing any sort of a pullback in a significant way from the housing market [now],” Miller said during the Elliman Town Hall earlier this month. “But the story goes that when consumers are uncertain, what do they do? They pause.”
Miller said the tariffs will undoubtedly lead to challenges with new construction because of higher material costs. On top of that, the Trump administration’s immigration policies, Miller noted, will bring higher costs to the sector.
“There’s no question that tariffs are going to impact new construction because of material costs [and] the immigration policy,” Miller said. “Forty percent of construction workers are foreign-born, so there’s going to be higher labor and material cost added to the already higher [new development] market.”
Mauricio Umansky
Mauricio Umansky, CEO of The Agency, also told Inman that even though there may not be a direct impact to the real estate as a service industry, the industry will certainly feel an impact.
“Where it affects is goods increasing [in] pricing, and potentially, with prices increasing, creating less demand in all markets,” the CEO said. “I just don’t know how much more brokerages can handle in terms of continuing pressure on demand. I think that’s the bigger issue.”
Shifts with foreign buyers and Americans abroad
Predictions about how tariffs might impact Americans buying abroad, internationals buying in the U.S. and foreign affiliates of U.S.-based brokerages are mixed. While the dollar remained relatively strong earlier this month, Miller told Elliman agents that demand from foreign buyers had not been impacted significantly as of yet. But, as with American buyers, the situation has the potential to cause foreign buyers to pause.
“It may not diminish [demand] substantially, but I do see it pausing international interest, just because of the unknowns in the economy,” he said.
Daniel Daggers | DDRE Global
However, Daniel Daggers of DDRE Global in London told Inman he could see the impacts of tariffs and a weaker U.S. dollar potentially having the opposite effect. As of Monday, the dollar fell more than 1 percent against the Euro to its lowest level in more than three years. It was also the lowest it had been against the Swiss Franc in more than 10 years.
“You might see marketplaces like Miami benefit from a weaker dollar because the market itself is relatively warm/hot, depending on the actual development,” Daggers said. “And if you have that, and you add the fact that the dollar just got cheaper, particularly for Europeans, then that’s a good thing.”
Charles-Marie Jottras | Daniel Féau Christie’s International Real Estate
Both Daggers and Charles-Marie Jottras, president of Daniel Féau Christie’s International Real Estate in Paris, said that on the opposite side, Americans’ buying power abroad will likely be curbed if the dollar weakens significantly, as expected. Although ultra-luxury buyers are unlikely to be hit as hard, it could cause other American buyers to reconsider their purchase or downgrade their buying goals.
Jottras added that most American homebuyers in Paris are luxury buyers who are very motivated to be there for lifestyle purposes. Since the beginning of 2025, he said there’s been a noticeable uptick in American buyers.
“It’s not a huge wave, but there are more,” he said.
When it comes to international affiliates of U.S. firms, like Corcoran Group, which now has affiliates in Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Europe, there will be a number of secondary impacts, Corcoran Affiliate Network President Stephanie Anton said.
Stephanie Anton | Corcoran Affiliate Network
“Even if it’s not a primary impact to a country, there’s these secondary impacts,” Anton said. “So for example, in our Ontario [affiliate], our broker there, a lot of their business comes from the automotive business, so their clients are being impacted. So it may not be like there’s a tariff on real estate, but people who have wealth driven by a [specific] sector have the potential to be impacted. So it’s a little bit wait and see.”
Brokers and agents will have to find ways to pivot their business, and get through this difficult period as they have had to during other periods of struggle in the past.
“It’s the same story we’ve always heard,” Anton said,” which is that people just have to be really creative in difficult times.”
