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

St Albans is the dearest at £621,750 and Stevenage the cheapest at £350,000: the same budget buys 1.8 times as much home by price at one end of Hertfordshire as at the other.

The marker on each bar is the middle asking price of the new homes for sale there today. In 8 of the 8 council areas with enough new homes to compare, new homes are asking more than the homes sold around them: a new home is often larger or a different kind, so the gap is not the new-build premium on its own.

364 new homes are for sale across Hertfordshire today. Stevenage has the most (82), then East Hertfordshire (68).

Price per square foot takes the size of the home out of the comparison. It runs from £383 in Stevenage to £609 in St Albans.

Sales for every thousand households show how often homes change hands, which is how much choice a buyer has in a year. East Hertfordshire is the busiest (29) and Watford the quietest (20), around a middle of 25.

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

In East Hertfordshire, 2% of the homes sold in the last twelve months were sold new, the highest share in Hertfordshire; in Dacorum it was 0%. New sales reach the register later than resales, so the latest months undercount them.

Sold prices were flat in the middle council area of Hertfordshire over the last year. Three Rivers moved most (up 6.7%) and North Hertfordshire least (down 2.4%).

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 rose 0.7%, led by Watford (up 7.2%).

Over three years dearer and cheaper council areas of Hertfordshire have grown at much the same pace, so the gaps between them have held.

There is no clear pattern between distance to central London and growth over three years: places close in and far out have moved alike.

Being ten miles closer to central London costs about £55 more per square foot across Hertfordshire, a clear pattern: on a home of a thousand square feet that is about £55,000.

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 £120,000 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 St Albans average the highest in Hertfordshire (57.1) and those of Stevenage the lowest (46.3).

Results are loosely higher closer to central London.

Density says what kind of place an area is: how close the homes, shops, schools and stations sit. Watford is the most built up (4,771 people per square kilometre) and East Hertfordshire the least (316).

Older council areas in Hertfordshire are clearly 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: St Albans, Watford and Stevenage lead for residents under fifteen. Towards the bottom left are the areas with more single people and couples.

In the middle council area of Hertfordshire, 16% of households rent privately. The share renting has little to do with price here.

Watford, Broxbourne and Stevenage have the highest walk scores in Hertfordshire. 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 Watford, 22% have none, the most in Hertfordshire. Areas towards the bottom right are where daily life depends least on driving.

A band D home pays £2,455 a year in East Hertfordshire, the most in Hertfordshire, and £2,306 in Broxbourne, the least: a difference of £148 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 122 crimes for every thousand residents in Stevenage over the last year held, and 68 in North Hertfordshire. 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.