9. Justify Conclusions A real-estate guide lists the average home prices for countie in your state. Do you think the mean, median, or mode would be the most useful average for homebuyers? Explain.

The median is likely the most useful average for homebuyers. Here’s why: • Many housing markets have a skewed distribution of prices because a small number of very expensive homes can pull the mean (average) upward. This can give the impression that homes are more expensive overall than they really are for most buyers. • The median shows the middle value when all home prices are arranged in order. This means that 50% of the homes are priced below this value and 50% are priced above it, providing a better sense of what a “typical” home might cost. • While the mode (the most frequently occurring price) can sometimes be informative, it is less useful when the prices vary widely or when there isn’t a single price point that occurs much more frequently than others. Therefore, for practical purposes and to avoid the distortion that extreme high-value properties can cause, the median offers a more accurate reflection of the home price market for buyers.