Experts’ 2025 Design Industry Outlook? Optimistic, With Caveats

Although 2025 may feel like a year when much is in flux—with a new administration settling into Washington, DC, and the aftermath of the devastating fires in Los Angeles just beginning to come into focus—leading figures in design, construction, and real estate are surprisingly unanimous in their mostly upbeat industry forecast for the year ahead. Here, they share their big takeaways for the rest of 2025.

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An End to Uncertainty

“The result of the [2024 presidential] election was not as impactful as the fact that the election is over,” says Khoi Vo, president and CEO of the American Society of Interior Designers, which recently published its 2025 Trends Outlook. Last year, the country was holding its figurative breath, with both consumers and companies hesitant about committing to projects before knowing what was going to happen. Now, he says, “people are exhaling and going, ‘Okay, we’ve got this behind us. Let’s move on with our lives.’ And business leaders are saying, ‘Let’s continue to plan and strategize about what we’re going to do next.’”

Scott Norman, CEO of the Texas Association of Builders, concurs: “There’s a lot of waiting on the sidelines in the second half of a year before a presidential election. We always see more activity after the election, when things are settled.” Post-November, his members have been reporting more interest in and inquiries about new homes. Industry mood may depend in part on location—states that are experiencing both job growth and population growth will be in better shape than states that are suffering net losses—but in general, he says, “people are optimistic.”

Areas Still to Watch

Some questions remain, however, as the US navigates the early days of a second Trump presidency. Ambitious intentions have been announced regarding tariffs on international imports and curbs on immigration, for instance, yet it’s still unclear how those proposals will actually be implemented. “I think the industry is waiting to understand some concrete plans for the next four years,” says John Edelman, president and CEO of Heller Furniture, citing tariffs as an example and noting that import duties expected to be levied immediately on goods from Canada, Mexico, and China haven’t yet [at time of writing] materialized. “We have to know what the rules are, and then we will pivot and play by those rules,” he says. Adaptability will be key.

Namita Modi, cochair of the Committee on Residential Architecture for the New York chapter of the American Institute of Architects, says that some international partners and suppliers in the home design industry are already scaling back on their US commitments due to doubts about the direction trade policy will take. She cites conversations with an Italian leather goods label that has paused its stateside designer events for 2025. “They’re coming back for their New York trade show, but with hesitancy,” Modi says. Otherwise, “everything is kind of on hold.” At the same time, Modi’s fellow committee cochair, Dennis Wedlick, reiterates adaptability as a reason to be hopeful: “Suppliers quickly shift into neutral when uncertainty comes around,” he says, but architects will “find somebody to make the product that they need.” Clever and flexible procurement strategies may be especially necessary this year, as the massive rebuilding effort that will follow the recent catastrophic wildfires in Los Angeles leads to nationwide shortages of materials—an outcome Modi and Wedlick think is likely.