Xinhua
15 May 2025

LOS ANGELES, May 14 (Xinhua) -- Just over a month after the U.S. administration imposed sweeping tariffs on its trading partners, David Truong, manager of the DuiDui Construction in Los Angeles, California, is already grappling with rising costs.

"The price of almost all building materials has continued to climb in recent months," Truong said in an interview with Xinhua. "Building new homes is getting more expensive by the day."

Truong offered a firsthand look at a construction site in Temple City, Los Angeles County, where the impacts of the tariffs are evident. A faucet, for example, once cost around 160 U.S. dollars, but now retails for at least 200 dollars. A steel-framed window, previously priced just over 300, now sells for over 370.

Lighting costs have seen some of the sharpest increases. "An LED recessed light, which used to sell for 12 to 15 dollars, now costs around 30 dollars," he said. "This house needs more than 20 of them, so we're looking at an extra 300 to 400 dollars just for lighting."

According to April's data from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), one of the largest trade associations in the country, a recent surge in tariffs is driving up the cost of building a new home in the United States by nearly 11,000 U.S. dollars.

"Tariff-induced disruptions are making it harder for builders to price homes accurately and make crucial business decisions," Robert Dietz, NAHB chief economist, said in a news release in April.

Construction input prices have now risen at a 9.7 percent annualized rate through the first quarter of 2025, said Anirban Basu, chief economist of the Associated Builders and Contractors, a national construction industry trade association in the United States.

"While contractors remain busy for the time being ... this pace of input price escalation, coupled with rising uncertainty, will cause projects to be delayed and canceled if it persists for any meaningful length of time," Basu said in a news release.

Rising costs have squeezed profit margins of Truong's company, forcing him to raise his quotes. In Temple City, his company's price of new home construction has risen from 220 to 250 dollars per square foot (0.093 square meter). In more complex locations in some other cities, the cost can soar as high as 280 dollars per square foot (0.093 square meter).

Truong's company is not alone in feeling the strain. Many contractors are facing similar challenges, with soaring costs for materials like wires, PVC pipes and cabinets. As a result, many are finding themselves with little choice but to renegotiate contracts with clients to share the financial burden.

The rising costs are not the only concern for Truong and other builders. The greatest worry, he said, is the potential for material shortages. "What we fear most is that some materials may soon be unavailable, no matter how much we're willing to pay."