Best places to live in East Sussex: house prices and data by area

Lewes is the dearest at £382,750 and Eastbourne the cheapest at £275,000: the same budget buys 1.4 times as much home by price at one end of East Sussex as at the other.

Price per square foot takes the size of the home out of the comparison. It runs from £310 in Hastings to £399 in Lewes.

Sales for every thousand households show how often homes change hands, which is how much choice a buyer has in a year. Wealden is the busiest (30) and Hastings the quietest (25), around a middle of 28.

A busy market is a sign of both supply and demand: more homes are coming up, and more buyers are competing for them.

In Wealden, 4% of the homes sold in the last twelve months were sold new, the highest share in East Sussex; in Eastbourne it was 0%. New sales reach the register later than resales, so the latest months undercount them.

Sold prices fell 1.8% in the middle council area of East Sussex over the last year. Hastings moved most (up 2.7%) and Wealden least (down 3.9%).

The mix of homes sold changes from year to year, so a single council area can swing for that reason alone; read the pattern across the areas more than any one bar.

Over three years the middle council area's sold prices fell 5.3%, led by Wealden (down 4.9%).

Over three years the dearer council areas of East Sussex have clearly grown faster than the cheaper ones, widening the gap between them.

Council areas closer to central London have clearly seen more growth over three years than those further out.

Being ten miles closer to central London costs about £69 more per square foot across East Sussex, a clear pattern: on a home of a thousand square feet that is about £69,000.

How many people drive to work has little to do with distance to central London here.

Council areas with more schools judged good or better are clearly dearer: every ten points more goes with about £62,000 on the middle sold price. The schools do not cause all of that; both follow the same households.

A council area is large: the school a home is offered depends on its own address, so check the schools around a development before relying on this.

Attainment 8 is a pupil's score across eight GCSE subjects. The secondary schools of Lewes average the highest in East Sussex (46.5) and those of Hastings the lowest (42.9).

Results are clearly higher closer to central London.

Density says what kind of place an area is: how close the homes, shops, schools and stations sit. Hastings is the most built up (3,053 people per square kilometre) and Rother the least (183).

Older council areas in East Sussex are loosely better off. Areas above the line earn more than their age alone would suggest.

Areas towards the top right have the most children and the largest households: Hastings, Eastbourne and Lewes lead for residents under fifteen. Towards the bottom left are the areas with more single people and couples.

In the middle council area of East Sussex, 17% of households rent privately. Cheaper areas clearly have more renters.

Eastbourne, Hastings and Lewes have the highest walk scores in East Sussex. Denser areas are clearly more walkable, because more is close by; an area above the line is easier on foot than its density alone would suggest.

Another way to see how easy it is to get about is how many households manage without a car. In Hastings, 29% have none, the most in East Sussex. Areas towards the bottom right are where daily life depends least on driving.

A band D home pays £2,756 a year in Lewes, the most in East Sussex, and £2,654 in Eastbourne, the least: a difference of £102 every year for the same band.

A new home is banded when it is finished, so ask the builder which band each plot is expected to fall in.

Police recorded 149 crimes for every thousand residents in Hastings over the last year held, and 58 in Wealden. City centres record more because of the people who visit them, not only those who live there, and a council area's figure hides wide differences between its streets.