Heritage: what really own the French – Challenges.fr

The inequality of wealth are reduced slightly between 2010 and 2015, even if the half of French households still focused 92% of the assets of heritage in France, according to a study by the Insee published on Monday. To field comparable, households living in France averaged by 248,000 euros to heritage, gross at the beginning of 2015, excluding vehicles and equipment of the home, jewellery and works of art, a rise of 0.5% in current euros compared to the beginning of 2010.

at the Beginning of 2015, half of the households living in France, declared a world heritage (gross real estate assets, financial, business assets for the self-employed, durable goods and objects of value) of more than 158.000 euros. To the extreme compared to this figure, the median, the 10% of households better endowed in terms of heritage have at least 595.700 euros of assets, while 10% of households have a maximum of 4,300 euros, or 139 times less.

These wealth inequalities are much more pronounced than those observed for income, underlines the Insee stated that,”in 2014, the maximum income of 10% of households is 4.6 times less than the minimum income of 10% of the population”.

real estate

On the period taken into account, the heritage gross household remains predominantly composed of real estate (61% at the beginning of 2015), the value of which is primarily concentrated (85%) on the principal residence.

The distribution of the total mass of heritage brut is not surprisingly unbalanced, with a significant concentration at the level of the wealthiest households. Thus, at the beginning of 2015, the 10% of households with more concentrated 47% of assets in total gross, while the 10% with the more modest claim that 0.07%.

Off vehicle, the goods of household equipment, jewellery and works of art, the imbalances of wealth have declined slightly during the period studied, notes the Insee. The Gini index, which measures inequality, rose from 0,662 beginning of 2010 to the 0,653 at the beginning of 2015 for the entire household.

“However, the relative situation of households at the bottom of the scale of heritage has deteriorated between the beginning of 2010 and 2015,” one can read in the study of the Insee. The heritage middle of this population – mainly held in the form of checking accounts and savings books regulated – melted 30.2% between 2010 and 2015, says the institute.

at the same time, inequality increased dramatically within this category, the Gini index reaching 0,684 at the beginning of 2015 against 0,523 at the beginning of 2010.

If the low interest rate environment has weighed on the savings of the households of more modest means, it has facilitated the access of the households the youngest to the property, subject to an increase of the weight of the debt in their heritage.

In five years, the share of real estate in the heritage of 30 years of age has increased by six percentage points to 70%. To the extent that two-thirds of the value of their real estate property remains to be repaid, the share of the debt in their own private assets, gross (excluding durable goods and value) has reached 46% at the beginning of 2015, an increase of almost nine points in five years.

(With AFP and Reuters)