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

North Tyneside is the dearest at £212,000 and County Durham the cheapest at £140,000: the same budget buys 1.5 times as much home by price at one end of North East as at the other.

The marker on each bar is the middle asking price of the new homes for sale there today. In 12 of the 12 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.

1,645 new homes are for sale across North East today. County Durham has the most (485), then Northumberland (220).

Price per square foot takes the size of the home out of the comparison. It runs from £157 in County Durham to £239 in North Tyneside.

Sales for every thousand households show how often homes change hands, which is how much choice a buyer has in a year. Darlington is the busiest (26) and South Tyneside the quietest (19), around a middle of 23.

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

In Middlesbrough, 2% of the homes sold in the last twelve months were sold new, the highest share in North East; in South Tyneside 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 North East over the last year. Middlesbrough moved most (up 3.2%) and Sunderland least (down 3.2%).

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 2.6%, led by North Tyneside (up 8.4%).

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

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

Being ten miles closer to Newcastle costs about £8 more per square foot across North East, a loose pattern: on a home of a thousand square feet that is about £8,000.

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

In North East, house prices do not follow school outcomes from one council area to the next: there are well-judged schools in cheaper areas as well as dearer ones.

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 North Tyneside average the highest in North East (48.6) and those of Middlesbrough the lowest (42.3).

Results are loosely higher closer to Newcastle.

Density says what kind of place an area is: how close the homes, shops, schools and stations sit. Middlesbrough is the most built up (2,671 people per square kilometre) and Northumberland the least (64).

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

Areas towards the top right have the most children and the largest households: Middlesbrough, Stockton-on-Tees and Hartlepool lead for residents under fifteen. Towards the bottom left are the areas with more single people and couples.

In the middle council area of North East, 17% of households rent privately. The share renting has little to do with price here.

Newcastle upon Tyne, Middlesbrough and North Tyneside have the highest walk scores in North East. 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 Newcastle upon Tyne, 37% have none, the most in North East. Areas towards the bottom right are where daily life depends least on driving.

A band D home pays £2,716 a year in Gateshead, the most in North East, and £2,197 in Sunderland, the least: a difference of £519 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 202 crimes for every thousand residents in Middlesbrough over the last year held, and 77 in Northumberland. 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.