Your answer should be based on the information obtained in attached pivot tables or worksheets, which must be included as part of your analysis/answer. 

The Week 7 AYK is challenging because not only does it require the use of pivot tables, it requires you to examine the source data closely and determine what additional data, if any, you need to meet the requirements of the assignment.

I will not be providing step by step instructions this week.  To me this should mean that you had a light bulb go on about how pivot tables are useful for analyzing data (if you are someone who had not previously used pivot tables).

Instead I am going to give you some hints that I think should result in you understanding what you need to do to arrive at an answer.  This exercise requires you to use your judgment, so the grading will be determined more by your process than by what answer you wind up with. 

That said, there IS NOT one correct answer to this exercise.  So your grade will depend a lot on whether your work indicates that you did some intelligent analysis.

OK, now for the hints:

HINT 1:  This exercise needs to be looked at through the eyes of a Realtor, i.e., what is important to a real estate agent?  The answers are the size of the commission and the number of days it takes to sell a property.

HINT 2:  You should use a figure of 7 percent for the commission.

HINT 3:  Before you create your pivot table, you need to add to the table the data that will enable you to figure out the things mentioned in HINT 1.

FINAL HINT:  Use averages.

Assessing the Value of Information

Recently Santa Fe, New Mexico, was named one of the safest places to live in the United States. Since then housing development projects have been springing up all around Santa Fe. Six housing development projects are currently dominating the local market—Pinon Pine, Rancho Hondo, Creek Side, Vista Del Monte, Forest View, and Santa Fe South. These six projects each started with 100 homes, have sold all of them, and are currently developing phase two.

As one of the three partners and real estate agents of Affordable Homes Real Estate, it is your responsibility to analyze the information concerning the past 600 home sales and choose which development project to focus on for selling homes in phase two. Because your real estate firm is so small, you and your partners have decided that the firm should focus on selling homes in only one of the development projects.

The New Mexico Real Estate Association has provided you a data fileto use that contains information concerning each of the sales for the first 600 homes. It contains the following fields:

The following numbers have been assigned to each of the housing development projects:

It is your responsibility to analyze the sales list and determine which housing development project your real estate firm should focus on. Your submission should make a clear designation which project you chose. Your analysis should be from as many angles as possible.

1. You do not know how many other real estate firms will also be competing for sales in each of the housing development projects.
2. Phase two for each housing development project will develop homes similar in style, price, and square footage to their respective first phases.
3. As you consider the information provided to you, think in terms of what information is important and what information is not important. Your process should single out the key factors used in making your decision.