Industry Research
Renovation Barometer
2022Q2 Houzz Renovation Barometer - Architectural & Design Sector
Findings from the Q2 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 declined to 65 for Q1 (compared to 69 for Q1): This decline in expectations is driven by an eight-point decline in project inquiries to 63 (compared to 71 in Q1). Expectations for new committed projects increased slightly to 68 in Q2 (up 1 point). Among the two reporting business groups, expectations among architects declined to 60 in Q2 (compared to 68 in Q1). In contrast, interior designers have increased their expectations in Q2 with a three point increase in overall expectations to 73. See additional subsector and regional data (PDF).
The Project Backlog Indicator is 7.9 weeks nationally at the start of Q2: The overall backlog for the architectural and design services sector is 0.5 weeks shorter than the same period last year. Among the two reporting business groups, architects’ backlog decreased to 9.2 weeks (down 1.4 weeks relative to Q2 2021), while interior designers’ project backlog reached 5.8 weeks (up 1.1 weeks relative to Q2 2021).
Backlogs across all regional divisions vary significantly from 6.2 weeks (West North Central division) to 9.9 weeks (Middle Atlantic division) across the nine Census divisions. Compared to the same quarter one year ago, backlogs are shorter across five of the nine Census divisions (East South Central, Mountain, New England, South Atlantic and West North Central 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 63 in Q1 (compared to 65 in Q4 2021): The overall indicator follows a decline in both components. The recent project inquiries declined to 62 (down 5 points) and the new committed projects increased slightly to 63 in Q1 (up one point, relative to Q4 2021). Among the two reporting business groups, architects reported a decline in recent business activity to 61 (down two points, relative to Q4 2021) and interior designers reported a three point decrease in business activity to 66 (compared to 69 in Q4 2021). See additional subsector and regional data (PDF).
The Q2 2022 U.S. Houzz Renovation Barometer was fielded from March 27 through April 7, 2022 and garnered responses from 220 architects and 323 interior designers on Houzz (n=543 in the architectural and design services sector). See detailed methodology here.
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