Sound underwriting standards, coupled with family-income and home-price growth, have helped reduce mortgage delinquency rates. The serious-delinquency rate for home mortgages as of March 2019

Interest rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages are forecast to rise gradually in 2019, nudging rates up to an average of about 5.2 percent by year-end

Home-improvement spending has increased steadily over the last nine years. By the fourth quarter of 2018, spending had reached a new inflation-adjusted high. And the