another good weaken question!!!

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Recently in City X, developers have stopped buying land, contractors have found themselves going without work for longer periods, and banks have issued fewer mortgages. There must be fewer new residents moving to City X than there were previously.

Which of the following indicates a flaw in the reasoning above?

A] This year several housing blocks have gone on the market after being held up for months by legal red tape.

B] The average size of a new home has increased significantly over the past several years.

C] Re-sales of condominiums have increased over the past six months.

D] The cost of materials such as lumber and cement has decreased over the past year.

E] Sales of other big-ticket items, such as automobiles and boats, has remained steady over the past year.



The given OA is A.



Remember guyzzzz... all these questions that I am posting, are official GMATPREP questions.

[vk_vinayak]

Can somebody explain how A is better than C?[/b]

[vk_vinayak]

I think I can see why A is better. Here is my reasoning:

Suppose the city has 100 houses, including apartments, villas, and condos; all occupied.

As per C re-sale of condos has increased. Say 20 condos are being re-sold. It does not guarantee that buyer will be an outsider. It could be that other residents of city are buying these condos. So this option does not necessarily point out the flaw in the reasoning.

But A says that new buildings (unoccupied) have gone to the market. So, that means that buyer should be an outsider. Even if the residents of the city buy those apartments, their old houses will be unoccupied and would need new residents to move into the city.

[Gaurav 2013-fall]

A very nice explanation by Stacey Koprince from Manhattangmat


A) This says some housing was built but wasn't actually sold because there was some legal red tape. But now, all of a sudden, the legal issues have been worked out and all of these houses come on the market at once. That oversupply could explain why there's a bit of a lull in the building market - there are already a lot of houses sitting there waiting to be sold.


I liked this question. Thanks for posting!