Within debates about the sociology of consumption and more general critiques of state provision there are strong assumptions concerning majority preferences in housing. This paper reviews available survey evidence on housing tenure preferences and presents some original data concerning the attitudes towards home ownership and state housing among households who purchased their council dwellings between 1968 and 1973. In doing so the paper demonstrates the complex and contingent nature of attitudes to housing tenure and engages with those analysts who present council house purchase as an example of dissatisfaction with statist modes of provision.