The 2023 WDMA U.S. Window & Door Industry Market Study

Labor participation, which is the percentage of people actively employed and looking for employment, has continued to steadily decline over the past two decades, reducing the number of people available in the workforce. After falling dramatically due to the COVID-19 pandemic, participation plateaued before rising again in 2022, although it’s still well below the labor participation needed.

In addition, national home values have plateaued or slightly decreased over the year, but strong equity remains from 2021’s 20% year-over-year increases. However, housing affordability, which measures whether a typical family earns enough to qualify for a mortgage, is at its lowest point in nearly 20 years due mostly to increasing home prices, increasing mortgage rates, and incomes not keeping up with inflation.

In 2022, the Consumer Sentiment Index, a measurement of consumer attitudes and buying intentions, has declined to levels not seen in over a decade, resulting in lower spending among consumers.

At the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak, contractor activity fell dramatically, but remodeling projects started rising during 2021. The Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS) expects this particular activity to continue to rise in 2022, with growth slowing in the last quarter.

The US economy showed surprising resilience in 2022, growing at a healthy rate despite the continued war in Ukraine and the lingering effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Total residential window and door units shipped (windows, patio doors, entry doors) totaled nearly 69.9 million units in 2022, increasing nearly 2.1% from 68.4 million units in 2021.

However, due to elevated interest rates, continued inflation worries, and a decrease in remodeling activity, the shipments of windows, entry doors, and patio doors are all expected to decline in 2023 before slowly building back up to 2022 levels around 2025.

Confidence and activity among homebuilders of current and future single-family homes have continued to decline over the past 9 months, reaching a low index of 31 in December of 2022. Homebuilders are feeling better about the circumstances but are still slightly pessimistic at an index of 44 as of March 2023.

With a window shipment rate of 54.6 million units, vinyl was the most shipped window type in 2022 with a 65.2% share, followed by wood and wood clad at 19.3%.

Intended primarily for deck or balcony-type applications, shipments of residential patio doors grew to 4.0 million units shipped, up from 3.9 million in 2021.

Entry door shipments fell by 4.5% totaling nearly 10.1 million against 10.6 million in 2021. The industry anticipates another drop of 6.5% in shipments in 2023 before rebounding in the following two years. The forecast reports roughly 10.0 million entry-door shipments by 2024.

Architectural interior flush door leaves declined in 2022 to 2.64 million units shipped. Shipments are expected to increase somewhat in 2023 and in 2025, but it is projected to drop again in 2024.