Americans are plowing money into their homes at an astonishing rate, new, used and even those not yet built, creating for Home Depot a frenzy of loyal customers.

The world's biggest home improvement retailer rang up its highest quarterly sales, and richest earnings in the company's history, and it boosted its outlook for the year Tuesday.

Revenue for the period ended July increased to $28.11 billion from $26.47 billion, topping the $27.84 billion that analysts polled by Zacks Investment Research forecast.