France's price gradient is steeper than its income gradient
Median disposable income across metropolitan France sits at €22,060 a year, median property at €1,593 per square metre. Overlay the two and the asymmetry is plain: prices spread far wider than earnings do.
Money and mortars move together in France, but not at the same speed. Layer GeoDwel's income table (INSEE Filosofi) over its price table (DVF) and the national midpoints are calm: €22,060 in median disposable household income per year, €1,593 per square metre. The interest is in the spread. Sort the country's communes into income quartiles and price climbs with earnings. Sort them by price instead and earnings barely stir.
Price climbs with income, but not the reverse
Group the 31,000-odd communes by local income and the price gradient is clean: the top income quartile carries a median of €2,377 per square metre, nearly double the €1,215 of the cheapest. Yet the mirror image is flat. Across property quartiles, median income moves only from €20,450 to €24,320. High earnings reliably lift prices; high prices do not require high earnings.
The national spread
Among communes of at least 5,000 residents, the extremes tell the story. Income runs from €13,280 to €45,580; price runs from €624 to €14,628 per square metre. Earnings vary roughly threefold, prices more than twentyfold. Where prices have not moved are the inland, lower-income communes of the first quartile, not places incomes forgot.
The caveat
Price per square metre is drawn only from communes with at least five recorded sales, so thin-market villages drop out and the coasts dominate the top. The overlay also flags where prices outrun any local wage: Paris's 6th arrondissement reports €14,628 per square metre against €39,600 in income, and Ramatuelle tops the price table on second-home demand, not resident earnings. A high price is a signal of who buys, not who lives there.