A report from the Census Bureau in October 1994 provided data on new one-family houses for a sample of 28 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) and consolidated met- ropolitan statistical areas (CMSAs) from around the country. (CMSAs tend to be larger than MSAs and can be subdivided into other metropolitan areas for purposes of census data summaries.) Data on total housing units sold, median sales price, and median foor area per house are available via a link from electronic Section 5.0. The median sales price can be thought of as a typical price for that area. Similarly, the median floor area can be thought of as a typical floor area for houses in that area. There were 250 MSAs and 18 CMSAs in the United States for the year in which these data were reported.
a. Plot the sales prices in parallel box plots, one for MSAs and one for CMSAs, and comment on any unusual features you see. Do you see any reason to make adjust-ments to the data before proceeding to estimate the mean typical selling price for the country?
b. Treating these data as a strati?ed random sample, with the MSAs and CMSAs being the two strata, estimate the mean typical sales price per house for all metropolitan areas of the United States. Calculate a bound for the error of estimation.
c. Plot the total number of units sold in parallel box plots, one for each stratum. Do you see any unusual features here?
d. Estimate the total number of houses sold in all metropolitan areas of the United States in 1993 and calculate a bound for the error of estimation.
e. Suppose you are to estimate the population mean or total for each of the three vari-ables in the data set. For which of the three outcome variables