Furniture, Appliances, and Construction Among the Hardest Hit by Tariffs, Chicago Fed Says

President Donald Trump's tariffs have hit a broad variety of household goods the hardest, according to new research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

The Chicago Fed studied the impact of the tariffs imposed last year and found many housing-related industries among the most exposed to cost increases from March to December 2025. Tariff costs were highest in manufactured industries, which affected a broad swath of household goods.

The White House has tried to blunt the impact of tariffs on some home essentials. But the levies inject uncertainty into building and buying. Retailers report price increases, and the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) estimates that about 10% of of building materials used in residential construction are imported.

Electrical appliances, equipment, and components saw almost a 3% increase in input costs. Furniture and related products were close to 2.5%. Construction was at about 1.5%. Quite a few other household products also notched notable increases, including motor vehicles and parts, textiles, and fabricated metal.

On the other hand, utilities, insurance, and rental and leasing services were among the least impacted by tariffs, according to the study by staff economists Luojia Hu, Marta Lachowska and Alan Mathew.

The Chicago Fed economists also doubted the tariffs counterbalanced those increased costs by bolstering jobs in the short run. And they similarly did not find evidence that tariffs led to major job losses.

"As more time passes, longer-term analyses may provide clearer evidence on whether these tariffs ultimately affected job growth," it stated. "For now, the short-run data reveal neither the clear employment gains that tariff proponents anticipated nor the significant job losses that critics feared."

Tariffs' long tail

The NAHB estimates homebuilders imported $14 billion in construction materials in 2024. That represents 7% of the $204 billion in materials used on single-family and multifamily building that year.

That includes lumber and metals used in homebuilding, which led to a run on nails and other homebuilding materials.

The latest NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index survey estimated that the impacts have persisted, and are hitting small homebuilders harder. About 72.9% of builders in the July survey reported that the cost of materials are up year over year, with builders reporting cost increases of up to 15%.

That's hitting smaller builders the hardest, Paul Emrath, NAHB vice president of survey and housing policy research, said of the findings. Builders who are starting larger numbers of homes report less severe price escalations than smaller ones.

"Larger home builders may have greater ability to stockpile materials when they anticipate price increases," Emrath said. "Larger builders may also have longer-term contracts with suppliers, locking in current prices for an extended period. Larger builders may also be more likely to have special relationships with certain suppliers, allowing them to negotiate deferred price increases."

The conservative-leaning Cato Institute released findings similar to the Chicago Fed, arguing manufacturing expansion has been strongest in computers, electronics, and aerospace. Those industries are facing among the lowest tariffs, the study found.