Who sells to whom in the suburbs? Home price inflation and the dynamics of sellers and buyers in the metropolitan region of Paris, 1996-2012

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 14; no. 3; p. e0213169
• Main Authors: Le Goix, Renaud, Giraud, Timothée, Cura, Robin, Le Corre, Thibault, Migozzi, Julien
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 21.03.2019; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Analysis; Architecture, space management; Archives & records; Cities; Data processing; Earth Sciences; Economic aspects; Economics and Finance; Executives; France; Geodemographics; Geographic information systems; Geography; Households; Housing; Housing - economics; Human geography; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Inequality; Inflation; Inflation (Economics); Inflation, Economic; Interpolation; Interpolation techniques; Merchants; Metropolitan areas; Mobility; Multivariate analysis; Neighborhoods; Occupational status; Ownership; People and Places; Personal income; Physical Sciences; Professionalization; Property; Property values; Real estate; Regions; Research and Analysis Methods; Residential segregation; Retirees; Retirement; Segregation; Social groups; Social Sciences; Sociology; Spatial analysis; Spatial data; Suburban areas; Suburbanization; Suburbs; Trajectories; Trends; Urban Population; Urbanization; Values; Workers; Cities; France; Socioeconomic segregation; Ownership; Ordinary financialization; Inégalité patrimoniales; PARIS team; Geospatial data; Accession à la propriété; Ségrégation résidentielle; ACL; Données géo-référencées; Residential housing markets; Spatial and temporal analysis; Housing prices; Analyse spatiale et temporelle; Wealth inequality; Prix immobilier; Marché immobilier résidentiel
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0213169

Price inflation has outbalanced the income of residents and buyers in major post-industrial city-regions, and real estate has become an important driver of these inequalities. In a context of a resilient inflation of home values during the last two decades in the greater Paris Region, it is critical to examine housing price dynamics to get a better understanding of socioeconomic segregation. This paper aims at presenting spatial analysis of the dynamics of segregation pertaining to inflation, analyzing price and sellers and buyers data. Using interpolation techniques and multivariate analysis, the paper presents a spatial analysis of property-level data from the Paris Chamber of Notaries (1996-2012) in a GIS (159,000 transactions in suburban areas, single family homes only). Multivariate analysis capture price change and local trajectories of occupational status, i.e. changes in balance between inward and outward flows of sellers and buyers. We adopt a method that fits the fragmented spatial patterns of suburbanization. To do so, we remove the spatial bias by means of a regular 1-km spatial grid, interpolating the variables within it, using a time-distance matrix. The main results are threefold. We document the spatial patterns of professionalization (a rise of executives, intermediate occupation and employees) to describe the main trends of inward mobility in property ownership in suburbs, offsetting the outward mobility of retired persons. Second, neighborhood trajectories are related the diverging patterns of appreciation, between local contexts of accumulation with a growth of residential prices, and suburbs with declining trends. The maturity of suburbanization yields a diversified structure of segregation between the social groups, that do not simply oppose executives vs. blue collar suburbs. A follow-up research agenda is finally outlined.