Development / National
A $25M funding gap and tariff-driven cost pressure stalled the 357-unit project, testing mass timber's economics.
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TOPIC / CONSTRUCTION COSTS / 2 STORIES
Construction Costs, Tariffs & Labor
The cost side of every project decision. Tariffs on key materials, skilled-labor shortages, and rising insurance are reshaping what pencils.
Construction cost is where many projects live or die. Tariffs on steel, aluminum, and copper, a structural shortage of skilled trades, and climbing insurance premiums have pushed hard costs up and compressed the margins developers underwrite to.
These pressures do not hit evenly. They change which product types and markets pencil, and they push developers toward value engineering, alternative materials, and phasing. Cost trajectory is now a core timing input, not a fixed line.
This hub tracks the cost side: material and tariff moves, labor, insurance, and what they mean for feasibility.
Go deeper: read the guide.
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Development / New York
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Frequently asked
- How do tariffs affect construction costs?
- Tariffs raise the price of imported materials like steel, aluminum, and copper, and they can pull up domestic prices too as suppliers follow the market. Because those materials run through structure, facades, mechanical systems, and wiring, even a targeted tariff can lift a project's overall hard costs by a meaningful margin, squeezing the developer's margin.
- Why is skilled construction labor in short supply?
- The trades face a structural shortage: an aging workforce, fewer young workers entering the field, and demand from large projects competing for the same crews. Shortages lengthen schedules and raise labor costs, and they hit hardest in booming markets and for specialized work, which factors directly into feasibility and timing.
- How are rising insurance costs affecting development?
- Property and casualty insurance has climbed sharply, especially in markets exposed to climate risk, and higher premiums cut directly into net operating income. That compresses values and can make otherwise viable deals fail to pencil, which is why insurance has moved from a line item to a real underwriting variable.