The housing market has been under pressure for a while, from high mortgage rates to affordability concerns. Now, builders are facing a new challenge: tariffs.
At this year’s Builder 100 Conference, Zonda’s chief economist Ali Wolf highlighted how new and proposed tariffs could significantly raise the cost of building homes, especially when it comes to framing and other raw materials. Zonda projects a 9% increase in “sticks and bricks” costs for builders.
In a market already facing rising interest rates and soft consumer sentiment, added material costs can quickly erode margins. While builders can’t control macroeconomic policy, they can control their operational efficiency and how they deliver homes.
The Tariff Surge: A New Financial Strain on Builders
New and proposed tariffs are making construction materials more expensive, fast. Here’s what’s happening:
- Softwood lumber from Canada: Now subject to a combined duty of 34.45%
- Aluminum and steel imports: Facing tariffs of 25%
These tariffs are projected to increase the cost of building a typical single-family home by approximately $10,900, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).
For builders already dealing with slower demand and rising interest rates, these increases hit hard.
What It Means for Builders
The imposition of tariffs has multifaceted effects on the homebuilding sector:
1. Higher Material Costs
Tariffs raise the price of essential building products like lumber, steel, and aluminum. That directly increases what it costs to build each home.
2. Reduced Housing Affordability
As costs rise, home prices often rise with them. That makes homes harder to afford, especially for first-time buyers, and limits your pool of customers.
3. Increased Market Uncertainty
The unpredictability of trade policies introduces volatility into the market, complicating long-term planning and investment decisions for builders. This uncertainty can hinder the start dates of new projects and disrupt supply chains.
How Higharc Helps Builders Stay Profitable in a High-Cost Environment
While tariffs and material price spikes are out of your hands, operational efficiency isn’t. Builders looking to protect their margins need to do more with less, and that starts with rethinking how they manage product, plans, and workflows. Higharc helps forward-thinking teams streamline processes, reduce waste, and adapt faster to cost volatility.
Speed Up Design and Eliminate Manual Drafting Cycles
Higharc replaces manual drafting with intelligent design tools that automatically create buildable, code-compliant plans. Plans are linked directly to construction documents, so what’s designed is what gets built.
When timelines are tight and costs are rising, cutting weeks off your design-to-permit cycle makes a real impact.
Improve Estimating Accuracy and Control Material Costs
When materials are getting more expensive, precision matters. Higharc connects your building model directly to your estimating and procurement workflows — automatically generating takeoffs, aligning with vendor SKUs, and keeping bids accurate as plans evolve.
This results in: Better visibility into quantities. Less waste. And a tighter grip on your margins.
Simplify Your Plan Catalog Without Losing Flexibility
Most builders carry an overwhelming number of redundant plans just to support basic variation, draining time and resources. Higharc replaces this with a single intelligent plan model that supports multiple elevations, options, and code variants. This drastically reduces the effort required to maintain, update, and localize your plans, freeing up your team to focus on building, not redrawing.
Less bloat. Fewer errors. And a scalable foundation that grows with your business.
Deliver Personalization at Scale—Without Chaos
Buyers still expect choice, even when margins are thin. Higharc allows you to offer curated personalization options — floorplan changes, structural upgrades, finish selections — without multiplying SKUs or introducing risk. All configuration rules are built into the plan, so every variation remains structurally sound and code-compliant.
Give buyers what they want without creating headaches for sales, estimating, or construction.
Efficiency Is the Best Hedge Against Uncertainty
Tariffs and economic uncertainty are shaping up to be long-term factors, not short-term disruptions. Builders who invest in flexibility, speed, and operational clarity will be best positioned to protect their margins and scale sustainably.
Higharc isn’t just a design tool—it’s a smarter way to run your business. If you’re looking to offset rising material costs and do more with less, now’s the time to build differently.
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