42% of firms consider stalled, delayed, or cancelled projects to be at least a somewhat serious issue
While architecture firm billings grew for the 18th consecutive month in July, the pace of growth continued to slow. The Architecture Billings Index (ABI) score of 51.0 for the month is the lowest since January, and marks the fourth straight month with a lower score than the previous month. With a variety of economic storm clouds continuing to gather, we are likely looking at a period of slower growth going forward. In addition, inquiries into new projects also continued to slow this month, although the value of new design contracts rose slightly from June to July. While both of these indicators remain below their mid-2021 peaks, they show that there remains interest in new projects going forward.
However, business conditions softened for the second consecutive month at firms located in the Northeast in July, and billings have now declined at firms in that region for a total of nine out of the last 12 months. Billings continued to grow at a modest pace at firms in other regions, and growth actually picked up at firms located in the South. By firm specialization, business conditions remained positive at firms with multifamily residential and commercial/industrial specializations, while firms with an institutional specialization saw a very small decline in billings. Firms with an institutional specialization have generally seen slower growth than firms of other specializations during this recovery period, and that looks to continue.