Industry Research
Renovation Barometer
2021Q3 Houzz Renovation Barometer - Construction Sector
Findings from the Q3 2021 Houzz Renovation Barometer, which tracks residential renovation market expectations, project backlogs and recent activity among businesses in the construction sector.
The Expected Business Activity Indicator related to project inquiries and new committed projects increased to 76 in Q3 (compared to 73 in Q2): The expectations for project inquiries increased from 75 to 79 in Q3, while expectations for new committed projects increased from 70 to 73 in Q3 (up three points). Among the two reporting business groups, expectations were strong for both design and build remodelers at 76, compared to 70 in Q2, and build-only remodelers at 77 in Q3 (up two points, compared to Q2). See additional subsector and regional data (PDF).
The Project Backlog Indicator increased to 10.8 weeks nationally at the start of Q3: The overall backlog for the construction sector is more than a month (4.5 weeks) longer than the same period last year. Among the two reporting business groups, backlogs increased among both build-only remodelers to 10.5 weeks (up 2 weeks relative to Q2) and to 11.1 weeks among design and build remodelers (up one week relative to Q2).
Geographically, backlogs vary significantly from 7.4 weeks (West South Central division) to 13 weeks (New England division) across the nine Census divisions. Backlogs in the construction sector are longer than a year ago across all nine Census divisions.
The Recent Business Activity Indicator related to project inquiries and new committed projects reached all-time high of 82 in Q2 (compared to 73 in Q1): This follows increases in project inquiry activity to 84 in Q2 (compared to 79 in Q1) and new committed projects to 81 (up 14 points relative to Q1). The overall recent activity indicator for the construction services sector was driven by increases reported by the two business groups. Build-only remodelers reported a significant increase in the recent business activity to 82 (compared to 70 in Q1), which is a significant improvement compared with the activity reported one year ago and the highest recorded since Houzz began reporting the Barometer in 2015. Design and build remodelers also reported an increase in recent activity to 83 in Q2 (up seven points relative to Q1). See additional subsector and regional data (PDF).
The Q3 2021 Barometer was fielded from June 27 through July 7 and garnered responses from 186 build-only remodelers and 505 design and build remodelers (n=691 in the construction sector). See detailed methodology here (PDF).
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