Project Backlogs Near Bottom

Project backlogs (the amount of time current staff can be kept fully employed with design work that is currently in-house) remain weak, but appear to be trending up, according to Kermit Baker, AIA chief economist. Also, except for homes aimed at first-time buyers, homes at all the major price points are seeing more moderate conditions as compared to a year ago.

In addition, home improvement projects, which make up a growing share of workloads at many residential architecture firms, are reported as improving by the majority of firms serving these segments.

As workloads at residential architecture firms have evaporated, so have project backlogs. Backlogs were averaging over five months at the peak of the housing boom, but gradually declined through 2007 and 2008, running below three months for most of 2009 and 2010.

However, project backlogs may finally be moving out of this downturn. For the first quarter of 2011, backlogs averaged 3.0 months, up from 2.7 months a year ago.

- Courtesy of AIA