(large property developer owns a number of surburan apartment complexes. the developer wants to see if planting more trees will increase the demand for his apartments. the developer notes the number of trees planted in each apartment complex he owns, x, as well as the number of rental applications filled out for each complex in one month, y, interpret the correlation coefficient for the data

So if x= number of trees, and y= rental applications, the owner wants to see if increasing x will increase y. The correlation coefficient is between -1 and 1. If the number of trees really does have a positive impact on rental applications, the correlation coefficient would be close to 1. If there is absolutely no relationship, the coefficient would be near zero. If planting trees causes a DECLINE in rental applications, the coefficient would be close to -1.