Architecture Billings Declined to 51.7 in September but Demand Continues

Architecture Billings Declined to 51.7 in September but Demand Continues

October 19, 2022 from Floor Focus FloorDaily News

Washington, DC, October 19, 2022 – The AIA Architecture Billings Index (ABI) score for September was 51.7 down from a score of 53.3 in August, indicating essentially stable business conditions for architecture firms (any score above 50 indicates an increase in billings from the prior month), according to The American Institute of Architects (AIA).

This marks the 20th consecutive month of increasing demand for design services.

Also in September, both the new project inquiries and design contracts indexes moderated from August but remained positive with scores of 53.6 and 50.7, respectively.

“While billings in the Northeast region and the Institutional sector reached their highest pace of growth in several years, there appears to be emerging weakness in the previously healthy multifamily residential and commercial/industrial sectors, both of which saw a decline in billings for the first time since the post-pandemic recovery began,” said AIA chief economist, Kermit Baker, Hon. AIA, PhD. “Across the broader architecture sector, backlogs at firms remained at a robust 7.0 months as of the end of September, still near record-high levels since we began collecting this data regularly more than a decade ago.”

Regional averages for September were as follows: Northeast (54.6); Midwest (52.1); South (51.7); West (51.6).

The Sector index breakdown was institutional (58.9); mixed practice (50.3); commercial/industrial (49.6); multi-family residential (47.9).

Related Topics:The American Institute of Architects