Where French house prices ran ahead of local incomes
Overlaying INSEE median income with DVF price per square metre across 31,000-plus communes shows the two rise together — but unevenly. Property climbs from €1,215 to €2,378/m² up the income ladder, while income barely shifts up the price one.
Income and house prices move together — that much is not news. The question is how tightly, and where the link breaks. We layered INSEE Filosofi median disposable income over DVF transaction prices per square metre for metropolitan France: 31,232 communes carry an income figure, 31,092 a price. The national medians sit at €22,060 a year and €1,593/m². Around those two points, the two datasets pull apart in a revealing way.
Prices amplify what incomes only hint at
Sort communes into income quartiles and the median price nearly doubles from bottom to top. Sort them by price instead, and the median income climbs by less than a fifth. The relationship is asymmetric: earnings edge up the price ladder, but prices sprint up the income one. That gap is where affordability is won or lost.
The price ladder, read the other way
Flip the sort. In the cheapest price quartile — €159 to €1,189/m² — median income is €20,450. In the dearest, from €2,129 up to €16,093/m², it is €24,320. A near-hundredfold spread in price maps onto an income gap of under €4,000. Where prices have run ahead, they have done so faster than any local pay packet can explain.
The extremes, and the inland relief
At the top the amplification is starkest. Paris 6e records the highest price among large communes at €14,628/m² against income of €39,600; Neuilly-sur-Seine pairs the country's top income, €45,580, with €10,989/m². Here a good salary buys little floor space.
The inland relief sits in the opposite corner: communes in the lowest income quartile still show a median price of €1,215/m². For buyers whose earnings travel — remote workers, pensioners — those are the pockets where a euro of income still stretches across the most square metres. Open both layers to see where your budget lands.