Sentence Correction

Hello,
The below sentence is correct as given.

While depressed property values can hurt some large investors, they are potentially devastating for homeowners, whose equity - in many cases representing a life's savings - can plunge or even disappear

Can you please enlighten me on how 'they' properly refer back to 'property values' not to 'investors'. I am really confused

they are potentially devastating for homeowners is not a modifier here but rather part of the comparison...dont forget the while in the starting of the sentence....therefore they correctly refers back to depressed property values respecting the parallelism of the sentence....

Hope this helps...

missionGMAT007 wrote:Hello,
The below sentence is correct as given.

While depressed property values can hurt some large investors, they are potentially devastating for homeowners, whose equity - in many cases representing a life's savings - can plunge or even disappear

Can you please enlighten me on how 'they' properly refer back to 'property values' not to 'investors'. I am really confused

This is because, investors is very near to be correctly referred by they.

It may sound odd but I have read somewhere about this rule. Had the intention of sentence was to refer investors, its structure then would have been altogether different.

Hello,
Can you please elaborate a bit more providing some examples. I think that will help.
thanks