2024Q1 Houzz Renovation Barometer - Architectural & Design Sector
Findings from the Q1 2024 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 66 for Q1 2024 (compared with 61 for Q4 2023): This increase in expectations is driven by growth in both components. Expectations for project inquiries and new committed projects in Q1 2024 grew by 5 points, each to 66. Among the two reporting business groups, expectations increased for architects by 8 points to 67 in Q1, 2024 (compared with 59 in Q4 2023) and decreased by 1 point among interior designers (63 points in Q1 2024 compared with 64 points in Q4 2023). A score above 50 points indicates that a higher number of firms expect their business activity to improve rather than decline compared to Q4 2023. See additional subsector and regional data.
The Project Backlog Indicator is 5.2 weeks nationally at the start of Q1 2024: The overall backlog for the architectural and design services sector is 0.1 weeks shorter than the same period last year and only 0.5 week longer than in Q1 2019 (4.7 weeks). Among the two reporting business groups, architects’ backlog is at 6.1 weeks (1 week longer relative to Q1 2023) and interior designers’ project backlog is at 3.6 weeks (2 weeks shorter relative to Q1 2023).
Backlogs across all nine regional divisions vary from 3.9 weeks in the West South Central division to 8.1 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 54 in Q4 (compared with 52 in Q3): The overall indicator is up for the third consecutive quarter (54 compared with 52 in Q3). The recent project inquiries increased slightly to 51, up 1 point, and new committed projects increased to 57 in Q4 (compared with 55 in Q3). Among the two reporting business groups, architects report a 3-point increase to 54, while interior designers report a 1-point decline to 54 (compared with 51 and 55, respectively). 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 215 architects and 443 interior designers on Houzz (n=658 in the architectural and design services sector). See detailed methodology here.
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