2025Q3 Houzz Renovation Barometer - Architectural & Design Sector
Findings from the Q3 2025 Houzz Renovation Barometer, which tracks residential renovation market expectations, project backlogs and recent activity among businesses in the architectural and design services sector.
The Project Backlog Indicator is 5.9 weeks nationally at the start of Q3 2025: The overall backlog for the architectural and design services sector is nearly the same as the wait times reported a year ago (up 0.2 weeks). Architects report a decrease of 0.7 weeks in wait times to 6.7 weeks, while interior designers report an increase of 1.5 weeks in wait times to 4.4 weeks.
Backlogs vary significantly across all regional divisions among businesses in the architectural and design services sector. Businesses in the West South Central division (including Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana) reported backlogs of 3.8 weeks, while backlogs in the West North Central (including South Dakota, North Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas, and Nebraska) were more than five weeks longer (9.1 weeks).
The Recent Business Activity Indicator related to project inquiries and new committed projects decreased to 45 in Q2 (compared with 59 in Q1): This decrease is attributed to a decline in both project inquiries and new committed projects (down 11 and 16 points to 46 and 44 points, respectively). This quarterly slowdown is prevalent across both reporting groups. The indicator is down by 14 points for architects and down 13 points for interior designers, reaching a score of 45 for each group. The overall indicator is below the 50-point line, because more businesses reported a decline in business activity than those reporting improvements.
The Q3 2025 U.S. Houzz Renovation Barometer was fielded from June 14th through July 1st, 2025 and garnered responses from 166 architects and 368 interior designers on Houzz (n=534 in the architectural and design services sector).
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The Expected Business Activity Indicator related to project inquiries and new committed projects declined to 58 for Q3 (compared with 62 in Q2): This is driven by a 4-point decline in both expectations for project inquiries and expectations for committed projects (from 62 in Q2 to 58 in Q3, each ). Both architects and interior designers tempered their expectations for Q3, compared to the previous quarter, with indicators declining to 57 and 59 respectively. Despite this being the third consecutive quarterly decline in the expected business activity indicators, the scores are above 50 points, indicating that a larger number of firms expect their business activity to improve rather than decline compared to the previous quarter.