Subscribe to a Premium Membership to receive full access to our forecasts and member-exclusive market alerts. To receive public news updates, join The Sullivan Report mailing list under Contact Us.
Regardless of political preference or tariffs, shifting immigration policies stand to have a strong impact on the labor market conditions facing the construction industry as well as hospitality and agriculture. This can increase the shortage of construction workers, projects initiated, pricing, and market economics overall.
Immigration and tariffs may make the cost of building a new home even more expensive – worsening the near-term affordability difficulties facing home buyers. First-time homeowners are currently at the lowest level ever.
The Administration rolled out very aggressive “reciprocal” tariffs levied on 90 countries. If implemented, those tariffs would have raised the cost of cement imports entering the U.S. market by 19%. While the new tariff regime is a reduction from the initial concept, make no mistake, they will cause U.S. economic distress and adversely impact construction activity and cement consumption.
