Photo Credit: Jaruwan Jaiyangyuen / Shutterstock As Americans hunkered down in their homes in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic—with remote work and school continuing into the foreseeable future—many began tackling home improvement projects. Demand for home offices, more living space, and nicer outdoor areas boomed. Interest rates also dropped to record lows, spurring many to take out home improvement loans. According to loan-level mortgage data from the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA), there were nearly 480,000 conventional, single-family home improvement loans taken out in 2020 with a total value of $54.5 billion. Investments in home improvements began to fall during the housing crisis—and beginning of the Great Recession—that…