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

South Kesteven is the dearest at £262,000 and Lincoln the cheapest at £190,000: the same budget buys 1.4 times as much home by price at one end of Lincolnshire as at the other.

The marker on each bar is the middle asking price of the new homes for sale there today. In 6 of the 6 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.

406 new homes are for sale across Lincolnshire today. South Kesteven has the most (106), then North Kesteven (103).

Price per square foot takes the size of the home out of the comparison. It runs from £201 in Boston to £266 in South Kesteven.

Sales for every thousand households show how often homes change hands, which is how much choice a buyer has in a year. North Kesteven is the busiest (31) and Boston the quietest (24), 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 West Lindsey, 4% of the homes sold in the last twelve months were sold new, the highest share in Lincolnshire; in Lincoln it was 0%. New sales reach the register later than resales, so the latest months undercount them.

Sold prices fell 2.1% in the middle council area of Lincolnshire over the last year. Lincoln moved most (up 2.7%) and East Lindsey 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 1.2%, led by Lincoln (up 5.6%).

Over three years the cheaper council areas of Lincolnshire have loosely grown faster than the dearer ones, closing some of the gap between them.

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

Being ten miles closer to Nottingham costs about £14 more per square foot across Lincolnshire, a clear pattern: on a home of a thousand square feet that is about £14,000.

The further a council area is from Nottingham, the more of its workers clearly drive to work.

Council areas with more schools judged good or better are loosely dearer: every ten points more goes with about £11,000 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 South Kesteven average the highest in Lincolnshire (51.9) and those of Boston the lowest (40.8).

Results are loosely higher closer to Nottingham.

Density says what kind of place an area is: how close the homes, shops, schools and stations sit. Lincoln is the most built up (2,909 people per square kilometre) and East Lindsey the least (81).

Age and income are not linked across Lincolnshire: there are younger and older areas at every level of income.

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

In the middle council area of Lincolnshire, 18% of households rent privately. Cheaper areas clearly have more renters.

Lincoln, South Kesteven and East Lindsey have the highest walk scores in Lincolnshire. 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 Lincoln, 28% have none, the most in Lincolnshire. Areas towards the bottom right are where daily life depends least on driving.

A band D home pays £2,354 a year in West Lindsey, the most in Lincolnshire, and £2,260 in South Kesteven, the least: a difference of £94 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 162 crimes for every thousand residents in Lincoln over the last year held, and 58 in North Kesteven. 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.