An exceptionally strong finishing kick in 2019 has the home construction industry well-positioned to enter the 2020s on solid footing. It was a bit touch-and-go earlier in the year as builders struggled to bounce back from a late-2018 spike in mortgage interest rates, stock swoon and temporary loss of confidence. But interest rates have fallen in 2019, protecting would-be buyers’ budgets, and a robust labor market continues to stoke demand for housing. And as the year has progressed, the good vibes among home builders have grown: A key reading of homebuilder confidence currently sits at a two-decade high, driven up by a belief that pent-up housing demand will outweigh supply-side constraints. Make no mistake, many of those constraints remain, including scarce land and labor which have limited the industry’s output for the entire year. But growth in starts and a full pipeline of permitted projects to come clearly show that builders are finding creative ways to address these challenges and deliver the new homes the market so clearly needs.