Scott - I have not seen Patrick's data, but I could only find proof that he owned his property on south 7th street (this consisted of two adjoin town lots - and no actual deed was even found for that). WH also had half ownership of a 10-acre parcel in adjoining Alsace township, of which he shared ownership of with my ancestor Nicholas Madary. WH in 1778 had a gentlemen's agreement with a Henry Bierly for the rear portion of both of WH's lots - so WH would have received rent for that. I did see a reference at the PA State historical society about WH pursuing / obtaining a claim for a more distant piece of land in another county, can't recall where - but that was not unusual for the average working man at the time. So my sense at least is I have found no evidence that I would call WH wealthy. So I assumed he was a working man. In fact, in 1764 and again in 1769, he was taken to civil court for debts of 40 pounds and 24 pounds respectively. Interestingly, the swiss / germans were apparently often taking each other to civil court for debts and other minor offenses.
By the way, WH was a party to a church deed in 1759 - that is where he was listed as a locksmith.
Dave - you are correct that the buying and improving / selling of land was pursued by some - in fact my ancestor in addition to being a stone mason bought and sold a number of town lots - I believe he would buy one, build the house and stay awhile then sell and start again. I think these guys were ambitious and did what they could - for example during the war by 1782 my ancestor also owned a grist mill and fulling mill. I don't know if my ancestor's mills were on the same property that he jointly owned with Hachen - I wish I could find proof of that. I can say however that WH did not appear to buy and sell land speculatively - I have found no deeds indicating his purchase or sale of other properties in or around Reading, other than those I note above. If WH did have other land I would be very interested in that info.
I found that Schreit did own other lands - he had his residence (and I believe primary shop) on a prime lot in the market square on Penn Street in Reading. He also owned land along the Cacoosing Creek up the Schuylkill River from Reading. He had a mill on that property and made reference to "access by my workmen and laborers" in that deed. He was also listed as owning property in Douglass Township, east Berks county, in 1773. I would have to say I perceive that he was rather wealthy compared to the others.
Graeff again gives me the perception of a working man and did not really find that he bought or sold properties. He had the same property for over 50 years until he died.
The rears of the properties of WH, Graeff, and my ancestor NM were all rather close together in town, almost adjoining each other with back alleys - their group of properties was almost 3 city blocks from Schreit.
I'll check my notes to see if WH was called a gunsmith in the early 70's period.