Billings, Inquiries and Outlook Maintain Positivity, but Experience Declines for October

• The interior design industry continues to sustain its recovery by posting another month of positive readings. However, winter business activity has historically experienced a downward shift and the current indices present a similar trend.

  • Billings index* decreased over two points to 52.7 for October, down more than 16 points from the record-setting month in April (69.2).

    • Even with this decline, business is still growing as the index records its 16^th consecutive month in expansion territory (i.e., above 50). 

    • The three-month moving average fell 1.4 points to 53.2, but highlighted favorable momentum by trending higher than the monthly reading, which is a change from September.

  • The three-month moving average by region produced mixed results: the South (56.1) and the Midwest (55.0) sustained their positive advances while the West (48.4) and Northeast (47.4) fell into contraction territory.  

  • Inquiries index* declined 2.7 points to 57.2, but continues to grow at a healthy rate and near the historical average for the survey (57.3).

    • Additionally, the three-month moving average increased 0.4 points to 57.5, indicating a more positive trend for inquiries than billings.

  • While the six-month outlook for interior design business continues to outpace billings and inquiries figures, the outlook fell 2.9 points in October to 58.6, which is its lowest reading since December 2020.

• The majority of panelists (54%) indicated supply chain as the most important interior design-related government and public affairs issue.

  • Both supply chain and inflation concerns were mentioned heavily when discussing the six-month outlook, contributing to its more cautious view of the future.

*Note: Any score above 50 represents expansion (i.e., growth) and below 50 represents contraction (i.e., decline).