*3.2. Data Collection*

This paper adopts data from the Social Development and Social Construction national survey conducted by Shanghai University in 2012. The survey applies simple random sampling in three stages, and the data are from various geographical locations in China, namely Henan Province, Jilin Province, the municipality of Shanghai, Guangdong Province, Yunnan Province, and Gansu Province. The total number of samples is 5745. Due to the substantial differences between a rural homestead self-built house system and a commoditized urban property market, 2482 rural samples were excluded from this research. Among the remaining samples, 2041 people either purchased or built houses on their own. These people in question claimed the right to their property, know the price of their property, and are the main research objects in this paper.
