2022Q1 Houzz Renovation Barometer - Construction Sector
Findings from the Q1 2022 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 79 in Q1 (compared to 74 in Q4 2021): The expectations for both project inquiries and new committed projects increased significantly from Q4 2021 to Q1 2022 (from 73 to 80 and from 74 to 78, respectively). Among the two reporting business groups, expectations increased to 83 (compared to 76 in Q4 2021) among build-only remodelers, which is the highest reported by the group in the last five years. Design-build firms also have strong expectations for the business activity in Q1. The expected business activity indicator increased from 71 to 75 (up 4 points compared to Q4 2021). See additional subsector and regional data (PDF).
The Project Backlog Indicator reached 11.4 weeks nationally at the start of Q1: After seven quarters of consecutive increases, the overall backlog for the construction sector has slightly decreased but is still a month (4 weeks) longer than the same period last year. Among the two reporting business groups, the backlogs are at 9.5 weeks for build-only firms and are at 13.3 weeks among design-build firms. Compared to the same period last year, the wait times are longer by 2.7 weeks and 5.3 weeks among build-only and design-build firms, respectively.
Geographically, backlogs vary from 8.1 weeks (West South Central division) to 13.3 weeks (New England division) across the nine Census divisions. Backlogs in the construction sector are longer than a year ago across all nine Census divisions. See additional subsector and regional data (PDF).
The Recent Business Activity Indicator related to project inquiries and new committed projects declined significantly to 65 in Q4 2021 (compared to 73 in Q3): This follows significant decreases in project inquiry activity to 66 in Q4 (compared to 71 in Q3) and new committed projects to 64 (down 9 points relative to Q3). The overall recent activity indicator for the construction services sector was driven by a decrease reported by the build-only remodelers. The recent business activity declined significantly to 58 among the build-only remodelers in Q4 (compared to 75 in Q3). Design and build remodelers reported a slight increase in recent activity to 72 in Q4 (up 1 point relative to 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 167 build-only remodelers and 446 design and build remodelers (n=613 in the construction sector). See detailed methodology here.
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