Architectural Billings Index: 57.1
Design Contracts: 58.9
Design Inquiries: 71.8
Architecture firms reported another month of extremely strong business conditions in June, with an ABI score of 57.1, with any score over 50 indicating billings growth. While slightly fewer firms reported an increase in firm billings in June than in May, the current pace of billings growth remains near the highest levels ever seen in the history of the index.
In addition, inquiries surged to a new all-time high score of 71.8, and the value of new design contracts remained very high as well, with a score of 58.9. In addition, firms reported their highest backlogs in two years, with an average of 6.5 months. This ties the all-time high average since we started collecting backlog data on a quarterly basis in 2010, and follows a plummet down to just 5.0 months at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Business conditions remained robust at firms in all regions of the country in June as well, with firms located in the Midwest reporting the strongest growth for the fourth consecutive month. Billings have also surged at firms located in the West recently as well. By firm specialization, firms with a commercial/industrial specialization saw another particularly strong increase in billings this month, while conditions remained very strong at firms with multifamily residential and institutional specializations as well.
