Industry Research
Renovation Barometer
2024Q1 Houzz Renovation Barometer - Construction Sector
Findings from the Q1 2024 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 57 in Q1 2024 (compared with 47 in Q4 2023): The expectations for both project inquiries and new committed projects increased quarter-over-quarter (from 46 to 57 and from 47 to 58, respectively). This growth is prevalent among both build-only and design and build remodelers with both groups reporting an increase in expectations for Q1 2024 (from 41 to 56 and from 53 to 59). A score greater than 50 points indicates that more businesses expect quarter-over-quarter increases than quarter-over-quarter decreases. See additional sub sector and regional data (PDF).
The Project Backlog Indicator is 6.7 weeks nationally at the start of Q1 2024: The overall backlog for the construction sector is 1.6 weeks shorter than the corresponding period last year (8.3 weeks in Q1 2023) and is at the same level as five years ago (6.7 weeks in Q1 2019). Among the two reporting business groups, the backlogs are at 7.1 weeks for design-build firms and 6.4 weeks for build-only firms. Compared with the same period last year, wait times are shorter among both business groups, by 2.0 and 1.1 weeks, respectively.
The Recent Business Activity Indicator related to project inquiries and new committed projects increased to 48 in Q4 (up 4 points compared with Q3): This follows growth in project inquiries to 47 in Q4 (compared with 43 in Q3). New committed projects increased to 50 (up 6 points compared with Q3). Recent business activity increased to 53 among build-only remodelers in Q4 (compared with 46 in Q3). Similarly, design-build remodelers reported a slight increase in recent business activity to 43 in Q4 (compared with 41 in Q3). See additional subsector and regional data (PDF).
Geographically, backlogs vary significantly from 3.5 weeks (Mountain division) to 11.7 weeks (New England division) across the nine Census divisions. Compared with the same quarter one year ago, backlogs for the construction sector are shorter across seven of nine Census divisions (across all but the East South Central and the West South Central divisions). See additional subsector and regional data (PDF).
The Q1 2024 U.S. Houzz Renovation Barometer was fielded from December 23, 2023 through January 3, 2024 and garnered responses from 144 build-only remodelers and 380 design and build remodelers (n=524 in the construction sector). See detailed methodology here.
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