Industry Research
Renovation Barometer
2022Q1 Houzz Renovation Barometer - Architectural & Design Sector
Findings from the Q1 2022 Houzz Renovation Barometer, which tracks residential renovation market expectations, project backlogs and recent activity among businesses in the architectural and design services sector.
The Expected Business Activity Indicator related to project inquiries and new committed projects remained steady at 69 for Q1: This is a result of a slight decline in new committed projects to 67 (compared to 68 in Q4 2021). Expectations for project inquiries increased slightly to 71 in Q1 (up 1 point). Among the two reporting business groups, expectations among architects declined to 68 in Q1 (compared to 72 in Q4 2021). Following tempered expectations in Q4 2021, interior designers have increased their expectations significantly in Q1 with a 6 point increase in overall expectations to 70. See additional subsector and regional data (PDF).
The Project Backlog Indicator is 7.9 weeks nationally at the start of Q1: The overall backlog for the architectural and design services sector is 2.3 weeks longer than the same period last year. Among the two reporting business groups, architects’ backlog increased to 8.7 weeks (up 2.6 weeks relative to Q1 2021), while interior designers’ project backlog reached 6.6 weeks (up 1.9 weeks relative to Q1 2021).
Backlogs across all regional divisions vary significantly from 4.7 weeks (East South Central division) to 10 weeks (East North Central division) across the nine Census divisions. Compared to the same quarter one year ago, backlogs are longer across all nine Census divisions as reported by firms in the architectural and design services sector. See additional subsector and regional data (PDF).
The Recent Business Activity Indicator related to project inquiries and new committed projects decreased to 65 in Q4 2021 (compared to 70 in Q3): The overall indicator follows declines in both components. The recent project inquiries declined to 67 (down 7 points) and the new committed projects decreased to 62 in Q4 (down 4 points, relative to Q3). Among the two reporting business groups, architects reported significant declines in recent business activity to 63 (down 7 points, relative to Q3), while interior designers reported only a slight decrease in business activity to 69 (compared to 70 in Q3). See additional subsector and regional data (PDF).
The Q1 2022 U.S. Houzz Renovation Barometer was fielded from January 16 through January 24th, 2022 and garnered responses from 238 architects and 375 interior designers on Houzz (n=613 in the architectural and design services sector). See detailed methodology here.
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