A new Federal Reserve survey has found that children who grew up in poverty were twice as likely to struggle with financial challenges later in life, Fed Chair Janet Yellen said Thursday.

The survey showed that more than half of young people age 25 to 39 who reported that as children they worried over things like having enough food were currently facing financial challenges, Yellen said. That was double the number with financial troubles who did not face such concerns as children.

Yellen told a Fed conference on community development that the findings underscored the need to provide children with the resources they need to achieve financial success later in life.

In the survey, which the Fed will publish later this spring, Yellen said there was a clear connection between childhood struggles and financial problems later in life.

“Young adults who regularly or sometimes worried when they were children about care, safety or having enough to eat are also less likely to be employed, less likely to have consistent income month-to-month and less likely to pay all of their current monthly bills in full, compared with those who never or rarely worried about these concerns as children,” Yellen said.

Americans responded to higher mortgage rates by snapping up new homes in February at the fastest pace since July.

New-home sales rose 6.1 percent month-over-month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 592,000, the Commerce Department said Thursday. That sales pace is nearly 13 percent higher than February of last year, a positive sign for the housing market that demand is robust at the start of the spring home-buying season.

Healthy job growth and a recovering economy have pushed up interest in new homes, while rising mortgage rates since the November election may have pulled some sales forward.

An exceptionally warm February also likely helped fuel sales.

More people sought unemployment benefits last week, but applications are still at a low level that points to a healthy job market.

Weekly unemployment benefit applications rose 15,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 258,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. The four-week average ticked up 1,000 to 240,000.

The number of people receiving benefits fell 39,000 to 2 million, the department said.

Applications, which are a proxy for layoffs, have been below 300,000, a historically low level, for 80 weeks. The figure had topped 100 weeks, but the Labor Department revised the data Thursday.