Home Remodelers Confident in Industry; Backlogs of Over a Month on Average
The Houzz Renovation Barometer, which tracks confidence in the home renovation market among industry professionals, has shown strong quarter-over-quarter confidence for all sectors for the last 10 quarters. With firms in high demand, we dug into the impact on renovation timelines.
This week, we introduced the Houzz Renovation Barometer Backlog Index, which shows the number of weeks before an average firm can start work on a new mid-sized home renovation or design project given its current project commitments. The index revealed an average backlog of four to seven weeks across industry sectors. General contractors (GCs)/remodelers and design-build companies have the longest average backlogs nationally at seven weeks, while designers show four week backlogs on average.
Backlogs vary significantly among the top 20 metro areas. In the Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA-NH metro, Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA metro, Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton, OR-WA metro, and San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA metro, GCs and design-build companies face backlogs of more than three months (13-14 weeks). In contrast, remodelers in Detroit-Warren-Livonia, MI, Chicago-Naperville-Joliet, IL-IN-WI, and Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX metro areas have the shortest delays and are able to start work on a new mid-sized project within a month (three to four weeks), on average.
Perhaps long project backlogs are why GCs/remodelers are the most bullish when looking forward to the third quarter of 2017, along with speciality building/renovation professionals. While confident, landscape/outdoor professionals are the most cautious about the upcoming quarter.
For more information from the Q2 2017 Houzz Renovation Barometer, see the full report here.