Building a home in the US was already a headache — then the Middle East caught fire. As we enter month two of escalating strikes, the Iran conflict is driving up construction costs, hitting everything from apartments to office buildings and retail. With no relief in sight, the insiders watching this damage unfold aren’t sugarcoating what comes next.

• PVC prices have surged by 50%+ since the conflict began — and aluminum is spiking after Iran’s strikes in Abu Dhabi and Bahrain.
• Already strained by labor shortages and tight financing, projects are now facing stalls or outright cancellation — with nearly every sector except data centers taking a hit.

The bigger squeeze: Few understand the stakes better than Stephen Ross, the billionaire developer behind Hudson Yards, who calls housing affordability “the biggest issue going forward.” Trump has already responded with a ban on institutional buyers and a $200B mortgage bond initiative, but Ross says it’s simply “not enough.” The avid Republican donor argues, “We’ve always solved [the housing crisis] with subsidies,” but that’s just plastering over a structural cost issue. For buyers already on the edge, the math isn’t getting kinder anytime soon.