Billings index continues with negative activity.Despite having its highest score since January, the Architecture Billings Index continues to point to difficult conditions for the nonresidential construction market. There have been six consecutive months with negative scores, indicating that business levels at U.S architecture firms continue to worsen. As a leading economic indicator leading economic indicator An economic or a financial variable that tends to move ahead of and in the same direction as general economic activity. Compare lagging economic indicator. See also index of leading economic indicators. of construction activity, the ABI Abi (ā`bī) [short for Abijah], in the Bible, King Hezekiah's mother. (Application Binary Interface) A specification for a specific hardware platform combined with the operating system. shows an approximate nine to twelve month lag time between architecture billings and construction spending Construction Spending An economic indicator that measures the amount of spending towards new construction. Released monthly by the U.S. Department of Commerce's Census Bureau, it looks at residential and non-residential construction in the private sector, and state and federal at . The American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Organized in 1857, the Institute conducts various activities and programs to support the profession and enhance its public image, including periodically awarding the AIA (AIA AIA - Application Integration Architecture ) reported the July ABI rating was 46.8, up slightly from the 46.1 mark in June (any score above 50 indicates an increase in billings). The inquiries for new projects score was 54.6. "Financing for new projects continues to be a problem," said AIA Chief Economist Kermit Baker, PhD, Hon. AIA. "Many projects are being reconsidered due to construction cost increases. And while there are a good number of projects still in the queue, owners are taking longer to proceed to the next phase of the design process." Key July ABI highlights include: Regional averages: Midwest (50.0), South (47.7), Northeast (46.5), West (42.2) Sector index breakdown: institutional (53.6), commercial / industrial (48.8), mixed practice (45.6) multifamily residential (39.2). Project inquiries index: 54.6 |
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