At the beginning of 2009, the economic downturn resulted in the loss of jobs and an increase in delinquent loans for housing. The national unemployment rate was 6.5% and the percentage of delinquent loans was 6.12% (The Wall Street Journal, January 27, 2009). In projecting where the real estate market was headed in the coming year, economists studied the relationship between the jobless rate and the percentage of delinquent loans.

The expectation was that if the jobless rate continued to increase, there would also be an increase in the percentage of delinquent loans. The data below show the jobless rate and the delinquent loan percentage for 27 major real estate markets.
a. Compute the correlation coefficient. Is there a positive correlation between the jobless rate and the percentage of delinquent housing loans? What is your interpretation?
b. Show a scatter diagram of the relationship between jobless rate and the percentage of delinquent housingloans.

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Jobless Rate (%) 7.1 Delinquent Loan (%) Metro Area New Yorlk Orange County Jobless Rate (%) Delinquent Loan (%) Metro Area Atlanta Boston Charlotte Chicago Dallas Denver Detroit Houston Jacksonville Las Vegas Los Angeles Miami Minneapolis Nashville 5.78 7.02 5.31 5.38 5.40 5.00 4.07 6.3 10.05 4.75 7.22 3.79 3.62 Philadelphia Phoenix Portland Raleigh Sacramento St. Louis San Diego San Francisco Seattle 5.5 6.5 8.3 7.1 5.5 5.57 4.40 6.91 5.57 3.87 8.42 7.3 11.12 7.56 12.11 4.39 4.78 8.2 Tampa