At the beginning of the year, the ongoing cutbacks in starts of new homes, together with a lowered but fairly steady pace of home sales, were beginning to reduce the elevated backlog of new homes for sale. However, a further weakening in sales of new homes in January and February reversed some of the progress in reducing those inventories.
New Jersey’s rate, at about 9 percent, was still higher than the national average, but Delaware’s rate of 7.0 percent and Pennsylvania’s rate of 7.6 percent were below the national average. Our Research Department is forecasting no change in the unemployment rates for Pennsylvania and New Jersey and a decline in Delaware’s unemployment rate in February. The data are scheduled for release tomorrow.