Industry Research
Renovation Barometer
2022Q3 Houzz Renovation Barometer - Architectural & Design Sector
Findings from the Q3 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 52 for Q3 (compared to 65 for Q2): This decline in expectations is driven by an 11-point decrease in project inquiries to 52 (compared to 63 in Q2). Expectations for new committed projects, however, declined even more significantly to 51 in Q3 (down 17 points). Among the two reporting business groups, expectations among architects declined eight points below the 50 mark to 42 in Q3 (compared to 60 in Q2). Though less substantially, interior designers also tempered their expectations in Q3 with a 5-point decrease in overall expectations to 68. See additional subsector and regional data.
The Project Backlog Indicator is 7.5 weeks nationally at the start of Q3: The overall backlog for the architectural and design services sector is 0.3 weeks shorter than the same period last year. Among the two reporting business groups, architects’ backlog is at 8.8 weeks (2.3 weeks longer relative to Q3 2021), while interior designers’ project backlog reached 5.3 weeks (3.2 weeks shorter relative to Q3 2021).
Backlogs across all nine regional divisions vary significantly from 6.3 weeks in East South Central division to 10.4 weeks as reported by architects and interior designers in East North Central division. See additional subsector and regional data (PDF).
The Recent Business Activity Indicator related to project inquiries and new committed projects decreased to 56 in Q2 (compared to 63 in Q1): The overall indicator follows a decline in both components. The recent project inquiries declined to 55 (down 7 points) and the new committed projects declined to 57 in Q2 (down 6 points, relative to Q1). Among the two reporting business groups, architects reported a decline in recent business activity to 53 (down 8 points, relative to Q1) and interior designers reported a 4-point decrease in business activity to 62 (compared to 66 in Q1). See additional subsector and regional data (PDF).
The Q3 2022 U.S. Houzz Renovation Barometer was fielded from June 30 through July 11, 2022 and garnered responses from 215 architects and 348 interior designers on Houzz (n=563 in the architectural and design services sector). See detailed methodology here.
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