Q: Jill and Bob want to finally buy a house for themselves, so they went with a real estate agent to see some houses before making a decision. The first house was not too far from their work and the price was accessible. The second house was really big and Jill loved it but was twice as expensive as the first one and was way over their budget. They ended up buying the first one, knowing that the price of both houses altogether is $600,000. How much did Jill and Bob end up paying for their new house?
A: 200000
Explain how we arrive at this answer:
Explanation: Let C be the cost of the first house. The cost of the second house is 2C. The cost of the two houses together is C + 2C = $600,000. 3C = $600,000. C = $600,000 / 3 = $200,000.