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Christine Renauld, CEO and Co-founder of Braindate, discusses how her app is revolutionizing networking by turning it into purposeful, meaningful conversations.
Category:
E-Commerce
Don’t look now, but President Trump just issued more sweeping tariffs. This latest round stands to affect two groups particularly hard: homeowners and furniture and home furnishing companies. Thats because the new round of Trumps tariffs will see up to 50% fees applied to kitchen cabinets and upholstered furniture imported into the United States. Heres what you need to know. Whats happened? Yesterday, the president of the United States took to his social media platform to announce another sweeping round of tariffs, including a 100% tariff on some pharmaceutical products and a 25% tariff on heavy trucks. But smack in the middle of those two high tariffs was another tariff Trump announced, this one of 50%. The president said that from October 1, there will also be new, 50% tariffs on select home items, including bathroom vanities, kitchen cabinets, as well as other associated products. But Trump didnt stop there. He said that from the same date, there would also be 30% tariffs on upholstered furniture. The reason for this is the large scale FLOODING of these products into the United States by other outside Countries, the president wrote. It is a very unfair practice, but we must protect, for National Security and other reasons, our Manufacturing process. While Trump said that pharmaceutical companies that are breaking ground on manufacturing facilities, or have facilities under construction, in the United States wont be hit with the 100% duties, he gave no indication that companies could escape the 50% kitchen cabinet and 30% upholstered furniture levies. Swedish furniture company Ikea could be hit hard Shortly after Trumps latest tariff announcements, Ikea tariff began trending on social media. Its easy to see why. The Swedish company Ikea is the most prominent name in the home furnishing space in America. The companys store locator tool lists more than 50 locations in the U.S. Whats especially bad for Ikea is that relatively few of its products are manufactured in America. The company has previously said that only about 10% of the products it sells in the United States are made in North or South America. Roughly 90% of its products are imported from overseas. In a FAQ on Ikeas Spanish website, the company says that it has over 1,200 furniture suppliers around the world, and notes that The five countries that supply the majority of products and services to Ikea are China, Poland, Italy, Germany and Sweden. Given the number of products that Ikea sells that would be covered under Trumps new 30% to 50% tariffs, the company now risks a major hit to its margins in the United States. Fast Company has reached out to Ikea for comment on how Trumps new tariffs will affect the company. What do the new tariffs mean for homeowners? Of course, Ikea and similar home furnishing companies are the only ones Trumps new tariffs will hit hard. American homeowners and renters are likely to feel the pain of the new tariffs, too. Its highly unlikely that Ikea, like most companies, will simply absorb the cost of the tariffs themselves. They will first try to offset some of those costs by asking for price concessions from their suppliers. However, the next step is usually to raise the prices of the tariffed items, so the end-buyerthe American consumerpays more for them. This means that homeowners and renters seeking new furniture for their dwelling will likely see a hike in prices in the near future after the tariffs come into effect next Wednesday. How are furniture and home furnishing stocks reacting? Ikea is a private company, so its shares arent traded on the public markets. However, there are plenty of other publicly traded furniture and home furnishing companies. Surprisingly, many of their investors seem to be taking the news pretty well. Most of the stock prices of the home furnishing companies below are trading relatively flat as of the Time of this writing. Bassett Furniture Industries, Incorporated (Nasdaq: BSET): up 2.4% Hooker Furnishings Corporation (Nasdaq: HOFT): down 1.6% La-Z-Boy Incorporated (NYSE: LZB): up 1.6% RH (NYSE: RH): down 0.7% Wayfair Inc. (NYSE: W): up 0.2% Williams-Sonoma, Inc. (NYSE: WSM): down 1.6% One reason for the general steadiness of these stocks may be that investors have become almost desensitized to the near-weekly tariff announcements from the president. Additionally, in November, the Supreme Court is set to hear a challenge regarding the constitutionality of Trump’s levying tariffs against countries and industriesa power historically reserved for Congress. If the Supreme Court rules against Trump, all of the tariffs he imposedincluding the home furnishing ones this weekcould be revoked.
Category:
E-Commerce
Want more housing market stories from Lance Lamberts ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. Federal Reserve Governor Michelle Bowman issued a housing market warning during a speech at the Kentucky Bankers Association Annual Convention in Asheville, North Carolina on September 23. Bowman noted that housing activity has slowed significantly, with declines in single-family construction and sales coinciding with rising inventories and falling house prices in many markets. Declines in housing activity, including single-family home construction and sales, have been accompanied by higher inventories of homes for sale and falling house prices, suggesting that housing demand has also weakened, Bowman said. Elevated mortgage rates may be exerting a more persistent drag as income growth expectations have declined while house prices remain high relative to rents. The result has been persistently low housing affordabilitya factor that has kept existing home sales depressed since 2023, stuck near levels last seen in the early 2010s in the aftermath of the financial crisis. “Given very low housing affordability, existing home sales have remained depressed since 2023, and at levels only comparable with the early 2010s following the financial crisis. I am concerned that, in the current environment, declines in house prices could accelerate, posing downside risks to housing valuations, construction, and inflation,” Bowman cautioned. Her comments underscore growing unease within the Fed about the housing sectors trajectory. While the central bank has held interest rates at elevated levels to bring inflation back toward its 2% target, the cost of borrowing has cooled housing demand more deeply than some policymakers expected. If Bowman is right and a sharper decline in home prices materializes, it could ripple across the economy, weakening household balance sheets and slowing residential constructiona sector that has historically helped pull the broader economy out of downturns. Her remarks suggest that policymakers are increasingly weighing how housing stress could complicate the Feds path forward on rates, particularly if falling home values begin to weigh more heavily on consumer spending and confidence. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}})}(); Whats happening to house prices right now? According to ResiClubs analysis of the Zillow Home Value Index, U.S. home prices are down -0.01% year-over-year between August 2024 and August 2025. That rate has deceleratedback in August 2024, the year-over-year national home price growth rate was +2.5%. As ResiClub has documented, this year weve been amid a widespread softening. “Widespread softening” here doesnt mean home prices are falling in every marketthey arent. Rather, it means home price growth has decelerated across most markets, and more markets are seeing home price declines compared to a year ago. On a regional and local level, home price shifts vary significantly right now. Some regional housing markets in states such as Texas, Florida, Colorado, Arizona, and Louisiana, where inventory has risen above pre-pandemic 2019 levels, are experiencing mild home price corrections. Meanwhile, tight-ish inventory markets in some pockets of the Northeast and Midwest remain resilient-ish, with home prices pushing up a little this spring.
Category:
E-Commerce
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