The third quarter brought a flurry of natural disasters, including category 4 and 5 hurricanes whose economic impacts will take years to unfold, with Harvey primarily in Texas, Irma in Florida, and Maria in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

Although ENR’s indexes measure the costs of non-residential buildings, the recovery in the housing market is having a major impact on index movement.

Material and labor costs will continue a gradual upward climb in 2017, continuing to recover from recession lows.