Americans Are Pouring Money Into Their Homes Like It's the 1990s

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Home sales continue to mount, albeit unevenly, and there are more one-family houses under construction now than at any time since mid-2008.

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What's more, Americans are spending more on home improvements. While a report Thursday from the Commerce Department showed a 2.9 percent drop in April outlays for improvements from the prior month, such spending was still 32.3 percent higher than it was a year ago. That's the strongest advance since January 2000, as the chart below shows.

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"The current strength of the remodeling market can be attributed primarily to economics -- low mortgage rates, strong existing-home sales, the bull stock market run, good job gains, and now more recently, wage gains," Mark Boud, chief economist at the provider of real estate research, said in a statement.