Industry Research
Renovation Barometer
2022Q4 Houzz Renovation Barometer - Architectural & Design Sector
Findings from the Q4 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 increased to 56 for Q4 (compared with 52 for Q3): This increase in expectations is driven by an 10-point increase in new projects to 62 (compared with 52 in Q3). Expectations for new project inquiries, however, declined to 49 in Q4 (down 2 points). Among the two reporting business groups, expectations among architects increased by 10 points to 52 in Q4 (compared with 42 in Q3). Meanwhile, interior designers tempered their expectations in Q4 with a 6-point decrease in overall expectations to 62. See additional subsector and regional data.
The Project Backlog Indicator is 7.6 weeks nationally at the start of Q4: The overall backlog for the architectural and design services sector is 1.7 weeks shorter than the same period last year. Among the two reporting business groups, architects’ backlog is at 6.0 weeks (5.1 weeks shorter relative to Q4 2021), while interior designers’ project backlog reached 10.3 weeks (4.2 longer relative to Q4 2021).
Backlogs across all nine regional divisions vary significantly from 6.1 weeks in the West North Central division to 9.0 weeks as reported by architects and interior designers in the West South Central division. See additional subsector and regional data (PDF).
The Recent Business Activity Indicator related to project inquiries and new committed projects decreased to 52 in Q3 (compared with 56 in Q2): The overall indicator follows a decline in both components. The recent project inquiries declined to 50 (down 5 points) and the new committed projects declined to 54 in Q3 (down 3 points, relative to Q2). Among the two reporting business groups, architects reported a decline in recent business activity 3 points below the 50 point mark to 47 (down 6 points, relative to Q2) and interior designers reported a 2-point decrease in business activity to 60 (compared with 62 in Q2).
The Q3 2022 U.S. Houzz Renovation Barometer was fielded from September 27 through October 5, 2022 and garnered responses from 196 architects and 313 interior designers on Houzz (n=509 in the architectural and design services sector). See detailed methodology here.
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