(10-20-19)
More than half of firms have seen significant project delays, changes, or cancellations this year. Business conditions remained generally flat at architecture firms in September. But while the Architecture Billings Index (ABI) score remained below the 50 threshold at 49.7 (a score over 50 indicates billings growth, a score below 50 indicates a decline), that score is 2.5 points higher than the August score, indicating that fewer firms saw declining billings in September. In addition, the design contracts index rebounded strongly to 54.4 this month (from 47.9 in August), as firms saw an increasing number of clients signing contracts for new projects. Firm backlogs also remained above six months in September (6.2 months on average), although they shrank modestly from a high of 6.5 months in June. More than half of firms (55%) indicated that backlogs have not changed from the second quarter, while 25% indicated that they’ve decreased by 5% or more, and 20% indicated that they’ve increased by 5% or more. Billings remained weak at firms located in the Northeast and Midwest in September, softening further in both of those regions from August. However, growth continued at firms located in the South for the second consecutive month and for the fifth consecutive month at firms located in the West. Business conditions weakened further at firms with commercial/industrial and institutional specializations but improved at firms with a residential specialization, after a soft late spring and early summer period.