WASHINGTON, DC — Related Builders and Contractors reported as we speak that its Building Backlog Indicator elevated to eight.6 months in December from 8.5 months in November, in keeping with an ABC member survey performed Dec. 20 to Jan. 4. The studying is down 0.6 months from December 2022.

The South, which stays the area with the lengthiest backlog, posted the biggest month-to-month improve in December. Solely the West, which traditionally stories the bottom backlog of any area, skilled a month-to-month decline.

ABC’s Building Confidence Index readings for gross sales, revenue margins and staffing ranges elevated in December. All three readings stay above the brink of fifty, indicating expectations for development over the subsequent six months.

“Collectively, contractors skilled an uptick in optimism throughout the vacation season,” stated ABC Chief Economist Anirban Basu. “Credit score circumstances eased a bit over the past days of 2023 because the Federal Reserve indicated that its subsequent set of strikes will probably be to scale back borrowing prices. Which will have rendered mission financing a bit simpler, translating into each improved backlog and extra optimism concerning gross sales, employment and revenue margins for the for the primary half of 2024.

“Nonetheless, there stays trigger for concern,” stated Basu. “Latest knowledge point out that wage pressures persist, which makes it extra possible that rates of interest, and subsequently mission financing prices, will stay larger for longer. Geopolitical instability seems to be on the rise, elevating the likelihood of a serious conflagration that might additional impression provide chains and probably trigger steep will increase in sure vitality costs.”

View ABC’s Building Backlog Indicator and Building Confidence Index tables for December. View the complete Building Backlog Indicator and Building Confidence Index knowledge sequence.