Industry Research
Renovation Barometer
2023Q4 Houzz Renovation Barometer - Architectural & Design Sector
Findings from the Q4 2023 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 61 for Q4 (compared with 52 for Q3): This increase in expectations is driven by increases in both components. Expectations for project inquiries and new committed projects in Q4 inclined by 9 points, each to 61. Among the two reporting business groups, expectations increased among architects by 7 points to 59 in Q4 (compared with 52 in Q3) and by 12 points among interior designers (64 points in Q4 compared with 52 points in Q3), indicating that a slightly higher number of firms expect their business activity to improve rather than decline compared to Q3. See additional subsector and regional data.

The Project Backlog Indicator is 6.1 weeks nationally at the start of Q4: The overall backlog for the architectural and design services sector is 1.5 weeks shorter than the same period last year. Among the two reporting business groups, architects’ backlog is at 7.4 weeks (1.4 weeks longer relative to Q4 2022) and interior designers’ project backlog is at 4.1 weeks (6.2 weeks shorter relative to Q4 2022).
Backlogs across all nine regional divisions vary from 4.4 weeks in the West South Central division to 8.3 weeks as reported by architects and interior designers in the Middle Atlantic division. See additional subsector and regional data (PDF).
The Recent Business Activity Indicator related to project inquiries and new committed projects increased to 52 in Q3 (compared with 43 in Q2): Following a continuous decline over eight consecutive quarters, the overall indicator is up for the second consecutive quarter (52 compared with 43 in Q2). The recent project inquiries jumped 10 points to 50 and the new committed projects increased to 55 in Q3 (compared with 46 in Q2). Among the two reporting business groups, both architects and interior designers report increases from Q2 with architects reporting a 10-point increase to 51 and interior designers reporting a 9-point increase to 55 (compared with 41 and 46, respectively). See additional subsector and regional data (PDF).
The Q4 2023 U.S. Houzz Renovation Barometer was fielded from September 30 through October 12, 2023 and garnered responses from 204 architects and 385 interior designers on Houzz (n=589 in the architectural and design services sector). See detailed methodology here.
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