Home remodeling and design professionals anticipate greater business growth than decline during the second quarter of 2024, according to Houzz Inc.’s latest U.S. Renovation Barometer. What’s more, the excepted business indicator inched up to 58 points in the second quarter for both sectors, suggesting that more firms anticipate an increase in second-quarter business activity than a decrease. This mild optimism follows reduced quarterly activity reported across sectors, with design-build firms impacted the most.
The quarterly barometer provides timely insights into the residential renovation industry, including expectations, project backlogs and recent activity among businesses in the U.S. construction and architectural and design services sectors.
“While promising economic conditions and improved product availability bolstered optimism among residential construction and design professionals at the start of the year, the anticipated uptick in activity did not fully materialize,” Marine Sargsyan, Houzz staff economist, said in a statement. “Pros across sectors maintain a hopeful outlook for increased business activity in the coming months. This is reflective of resilient local economies and aligns with positive consumer sentiment nationally.”
Backlogs for new mid-sized projects have normalized following record highs during the pandemic. In the construction sector, backlogs are currently at 6.5 weeks, which is 5.4 weeks shorter than the same period last year — matching levels from five years ago. In a similar trend, the architectural and design services sector saw a marginal reduction in wait times to 5.6 weeks, slightly less than this time last year (6.1 weeks), and 0.9 weeks longer than 4.7 weeks in 2019.
Scores for each component are computed as a seasonally adjusted diffusion indices on a scale of 0 to 100, with index values over 50 indicating a greater proportion of firms reported quarter-over-quarter increases than those reporting decreases.
