ABSTRACT
The rapid increases since 1950 in the rate of families that own or are gaining ownership of their residences both demonstrates and masks a very profound transformation in the strategies of accumulation and transmission of property among certain social categories. As Claude Taffin has shown, in 1984 owners who gained their property through inheritance or as a gift represented only 9 percent of the total of new owners. The percentage of home owners among the salaried groups of the middle classes, foremen, and the wealthy classes tends to grow with the number of children in the household. The salaried segments of the middle classes, great users of bank credit, and the upper segments of the working class have constituted an important part of those gaining ownership in recent years. Craftsmen, merchants, and executives responded that real estate is no longer profitable enough much more frequently than high-level managers and middle-level employees or workers.
