The Trump Effect on Costs in Senior Living Construction

The Douglas Company has a number of processes that control costs for our clients, and they have worked well in this inflationary construction environment.  But even for us, there are limits that everyone should be aware of.  Some were predictable, some not. Though I’m not an economist, it doesn’t take one to be able to predict that when unemployment nationally is below 5%, it’s difficult to get significant economic growth without growth in the workforce, either through domestic workforce growth or immigration.  Though The Douglas Company doesn’t endorse the hiring of illegal immigrants, and we do check green cards, we’ve noticed that the “Trump Effect” has made the situation more difficult, not only with anticipated faster growth of the economy, but a reduction in the Hispanic workforce, leading to capacity issues, and price escalation. What I didn’t predict was the tariff on imported lumber.  Over 84% of our country’s softwoods are imported...

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