Final answer:
To determine if the average house size of a new home in the county has changed since 2014, we perform a hypothesis test using a two-tailed t-test. The obtained t-value is greater than the critical t-value, leading us to reject the null hypothesis. Therefore, there is enough evidence to conclude that the average house size has changed.
Step-by-step explanation:
To determine if there is enough evidence to conclude that the average house size of a new home in the county has changed since 2014, we need to perform a hypothesis test. Let's state our hypotheses:
H0: The average house size has not changed since 2014 (μ = 2272)
Ha: The average house size has changed since 2014 (μ ≠ 2272)
We will use a two-tailed t-test with alpha = 0.02.
Next, we calculate the test statistic using the formula:
t = (sample mean - population mean) / (sample standard deviation / √n)
Substituting the given values:
t = (2189 - 2272) / (223 / √25)
Calculating the test statistic, we find t ≈ -3.76.
Finally, we compare the obtained t-value with the critical t-value. Since the obtained t-value is greater than the critical t-value (2.552 for alpha = 0.02 and degrees of freedom = 24), we reject the null hypothesis.
Therefore, there is enough evidence to conclude that the average house size of a new home in the county has changed since 2014.