Anthony Cabrera breathed a sigh of relief when, three weeks ago, he bought the last big items - couches - for his newly-built home in Hopatcong, New Jersey.

Mr Cabrera, who started working with a contractor in March to construct the three-bedroom house, was eager to get ahead of a fresh round of tariffs on key building materials and home items that took effect earlier this week.

Mr Cabrera had already seen his initial budget of roughly $300,000 balloon to $450,000 as prices for a range of products, like cabinets from Asia, started going up since the spring.

Earlier this week new US tariffs came in on items needed to renovate your home including imported kitchen cabinets, timber and wooden furniture.

"Tariffs were definitely on my mind throughout the whole process," said Mr Cabrera, who succeeded in finishing his build before the new tariffs, but still noticed rising prices in the run up.

"It was a concern every morning looking at prices, trying to figure out how to control the budget that kept increasing," he said.

Mr Cabrera's experience is one many home buyers, builders and renovators are grappling with.

While the White House says the tariffs will boost domestic manufacturing and protect national security, economists say they could intensify the US housing market's woes by adding to President Donald Trump's previous tariffs and slowing construction.

"We're in a fairly weak position in the housing market to begin with," said Peter Harrell, a visiting scholar at Georgetown Law School. "The last........

© BBC