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

Harborough is the dearest at £320,000 and North West Leicestershire the cheapest at £260,000: the same budget buys 1.2 times as much home by price at one end of Leicestershire as at the other.

The marker on each bar is the middle asking price of the new homes for sale there today. In 7 of the 7 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.

1,007 new homes are for sale across Leicestershire today. Charnwood has the most (318), then North West Leicestershire (180).

Price per square foot takes the size of the home out of the comparison. It runs from £270 in Melton to £320 in Harborough.

Sales for every thousand households show how often homes change hands, which is how much choice a buyer has in a year. Hinckley and Bosworth is the busiest (31) and Oadby and Wigston the quietest (25), around a middle of 29.

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

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

Sold prices fell 1.9% in the middle council area of Leicestershire over the last year. Blaby moved most (up 1.8%) and Harborough least (down 4.5%).

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 4.1%, led by Blaby (up 3.6%).

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

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

Unusually, council areas further from Nottingham sell for more per square foot: about £19 more for every ten miles out, a clear pattern.

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

Unusually, council areas with more schools judged good or better are loosely cheaper here: about £15,000 less for every ten points.

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 Hinckley and Bosworth average the highest in Leicestershire (49.7) and those of Blaby the lowest (41.9).

Results are clearly higher further from Nottingham, so here there is a trade between results and a short journey in.

Density says what kind of place an area is: how close the homes, shops, schools and stations sit. Oadby and Wigston is the most built up (2,455 people per square kilometre) and Melton the least (108).

Younger council areas in Leicestershire are loosely better off, which is common where a city draws working-age people. 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: Blaby, Oadby and Wigston and North West Leicestershire lead for residents under fifteen. Towards the bottom left are the areas with more single people and couples.

In the middle council area of Leicestershire, 14% of households rent privately. Cheaper areas loosely have more renters.

Oadby and Wigston, Charnwood and Blaby have the highest walk scores in Leicestershire. 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 Oadby and Wigston, 17% have none, the most in Leicestershire. Areas towards the bottom right are where daily life depends least on driving.

A band D home pays £2,490 a year in Blaby, the most in Leicestershire, and £2,383 in Hinckley and Bosworth, the least: a difference of £108 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 81 crimes for every thousand residents in Charnwood over the last year held, and 55 in Harborough. 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.