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While U.S. importers, retailers and homebuilders found themselves on the front lines in the government’s sweeping new tariffs on imports, American real estate brokerages were already beginning to feel the pain.
Just over 1 in 10 agents who responded to April’s Inman Intel Index survey said that they had witnessed a sale fall apart in their market because of “tariff impact.” Brokerage leaders Intel surveyed, from their higher perch within their respective organizations, were even more likely to have seen a deal blow up because of tariffs.
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This early temperature check was taken a few weeks after the Trump administration announced — then paused — sweeping reciprocal tariffs on U.S. imports, leaving in place a new 10 percent baseline tariff on imports from most countries.
They also reflect a period of time when duties imposed on Chinese imports were as high as 145 percent, before those too were temporarily brought back down.
The ever-changing policy environment has introduced a fresh wave of angst within the brokerage world, which by late April was broadly concerned about the direction of the U.S. economy, Intel’s survey found.
Dive into the numbers in this week’s full report.
A lurking threat
At first glance, real estate brokerages aren’t the most exposed business model to the impact of broad universal tariffs.
Brokerages have relatively low reliance on capital goods to conduct transactions and make commissions, aside from the computers and electronics that they need to do their jobs.
And the broader impacts of new tariffs on housing supply — such as on prices of lumber and other inputs to residential construction — are unlikely to be fully felt for months or years.
But that doesn’t mean brokerages have seen no effect in their day-to-day experiences with clients, who are weighing the same uncertainty of the new policy in their own complex and often high-stakes decisions to list or buy a home.
- Nearly 14 percent of real estate agents surveyed in April by Intel said they had seen a recent deal fall apart due to job loss.
- 11 percent of respondents said “tariff impact” had caused a deal in their market to fall apart.
- And 8 percent pointed to unexpected complications involving the Federal Housing Administration, the Department of Housing and Urban Development or the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
It should be noted that a large majority of agents surveyed — 74 percent — said that they had not seen any of these factors blow up a deal at any point in the last three months.
It’s also unclear in what ways the tariffs have impacted these deals, or whether the transactions in question were for their clients or those of other agents in their market.
In future surveys, Intel will dive deeper into this group to better understand this complex and evolving issue for the industry.
But in the meantime, part of the picture is clear: A lot of clients are asking about the tariffs during the homebuying process, and expressing unease about how they might affect them.
- 45 percent of agent respondents and 51 percent of brokerage leader respondents told Intel in April that clients have inquired about the effect of new trade policies on real estate prices — even though the tariffs are not expected to directly apply to domestic real estate sales or brokerage commissions.
Some real estate professionals also reported they are already anticipating a negative impact on their markets from federal layoffs — although the impact is expected to remain modest.
- 55 percent of agents surveyed in April said their market has seen no impact from federal government layoffs.
- 43 percent of agents in the survey said their market had been negatively impacted by federal job cuts, but less than 8 percent of all agents surveyed described a “very negative impact” from these cuts.
- Just over 1 percent of agent respondents in April described positive effects in their markets from federal job cuts so far.
This newfound unease was also felt by the broker-owners, executives and investors Intel surveyed last month.
The view from the top
When Intel has asked in the past about concerns over the market — such as with changes to commissions resulting from the NAR settlement — agents have often been more prone to worry than the leaders at their brokerages.
But when it comes to the tariffs, both groups reported a broad range of concern in late April.
- 75 percent of agent respondents in April said they were concerned or very concerned about the U.S. economy right now, compared to only 8 percent who said they were pleased with the economy.
- For brokerage leaders, 65 percent told Intel that they were concerned or very concerned, while 15 percent said they were pleased with the state of the economy.
Brokerage leaders were just as likely as their agents to say that their business decisions have been affected by recent economic uncertainty, but less likely to describe that effect as “significant.”
- Only 28 percent of agent respondents said recent economic uncertainty has had no impact on their business decisions at all — nearly identical to the share of brokerage leaders who said the same.
- Meanwhile, 32 percent of agents said that uncertainty has had a “significant” effect on their decisionmaking, compared to 20 percent of brokerage leaders who said the same.
The responses in this report reflect a slice of industry sentiment at a specific snapshot in time: specifically, the survey date range of April 17 through May 2.
Since then, trade barriers have continued to shift — and in some cases, on a temporary basis, ease — as the White House has responded to market uncertainty and expressed openness to striking deals with major trade partners.
Intel will continue to track the effect of trade policy on brokerages in the months to come.
Methodology notes: This month’s Inman Intel Index survey was conducted April 17-May 2, 2025, and received 428 responses. The entire Inman reader community was invited to participate, and a rotating, randomized selection of community members was prompted to participate by email. Users responded to a series of questions related to their self-identified corner of the real estate industry — including real estate agents, brokerage leaders, lenders and proptech entrepreneurs. Results reflect the opinions of the engaged Inman community, which may not always match those of the broader real estate industry. This survey is conducted monthly.
