There are new worries that President Donald Trump's latest tariffs could hit America's home and office construction industry hard.
The specific timing and amounts for these new tariffs are still unknown, but it's expected that they'll send prices for raw construction materials skyrocketing. People in the industry say that could all add up to a big slowdown.
Nathan Weizmann, owner of Wise Builders in San Jose, said tariffs on metals will hit commercial building a lot harder than residential.
"They use more or less the same materials, just the scale and size of those materials are much, much more drastic and different when you build a 50-story building and when you build a one-, two- or even three-story home," he said. "It's very different."
For instance, Apple on Monday announced a plan to spend $500 billion in the U.S. over the next four years, which likely means hiring and building. That would require a lot of steel and aluminum, which could soon get more expensive.
"If we do proceed with 25% steel tariffs, any factories or data centers which of course use these things for their structures will go up in price, and that $500 billion isn't going to go quite as far," Cato Institute research fellow Matt Mittelsteadt said.
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