Last year, 36 houses in a certain development

[NandishSS]

Last year, 36 houses in a certain development had roof repairs and 48 houses were repainted. If 20 houses in the development had roof repairs but were not repainted last year, how many houses were repainted but did not have roof repairs?

A.12
B.16
C.20
D.28
E.32

OA:E

Source:GMATPrep EP1

[MartyMurray]

The houses could have roof repairs, be repainted or both have roof repairs and be repainted.

To determine how many were repainted only, we need to find out how many both had roof repairs and were repainted and subtract that from 48, the number repainted.

36 had roof repairs. Some of the 36 may also have been repainted.

20 only had roof repairs.

36 - 20 = 16 both had roof repairs and were repainted

48 - 16 = 32 only were repainted

The correct answer is E.

[Matt@VeritasPrep]

36 had roof repairs. 20 of these WEREN'T repainted, so the other 16 WERE repainted.

If 16 of the repaints had roof repairs, the rest (or 48 - 16) DIDN'T, so our answer is 48 - 16 => 32.

[Scott@TargetTestPrep]

Last year, 36 houses in a certain development had roof repairs and 48 houses were repainted. If 20 houses in the development had roof repairs but were not repainted last year, how many houses were repainted but did not have roof repairs?

A.12
B.16
C.20
D.28
E.32

OA:E

Source:GMATPrep EP1

We can create the equation:

36 - both = 20

both = 16

Thus, the number of houses that were repainted only was 48 - 16 = 32.

Answer: E