The number of new homes sitting empty and unsold has started to drop in Utah. But that's not because a lot more people are buying.

The largest number of unsold new homes are in Lehi and Saratoga Springs, followed by South Jordan and St. George. But those numbers are going down mostly because many homebuilders have scaled back construction.

Jason Eldredge, of the real-estate research company Newreach, says he expects most of the empty homes to be sold by the end of the year, and then builders will start building again, only on a much smaller scale.