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

Babergh is the dearest at £315,000 and Ipswich the cheapest at £240,000: the same budget buys 1.3 times as much home by price at one end of Suffolk as at the other.

The marker on each bar is the middle asking price of the new homes for sale there today. In 5 of the 5 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.

503 new homes are for sale across Suffolk today. East Suffolk has the most (159), then Mid Suffolk (139).

Price per square foot takes the size of the home out of the comparison. It runs from £263 in Ipswich to £323 in Babergh.

Sales for every thousand households show how often homes change hands, which is how much choice a buyer has in a year. Mid Suffolk is the busiest (30) and Ipswich the quietest (22), 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 West Suffolk, 4% of the homes sold in the last twelve months were sold new, the highest share in Suffolk; in Ipswich it was 0%. New sales reach the register later than resales, so the latest months undercount them.

Sold prices fell 1.7% in the middle council area of Suffolk over the last year. Ipswich moved most (up 0.0%) and Mid Suffolk least (down 4.3%).

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 4.0%, led by Ipswich (down 2.0%).

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

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

Distance to central London does not explain prices in Suffolk: council areas near and far sell for much the same per square foot, so something else (the coast, a second city, the countryside) is setting them.

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 £33,000 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 Mid Suffolk average the highest in Suffolk (46.3) and those of West Suffolk the lowest (43.0).

Results do not follow distance to central London: there is no trade here 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. Ipswich is the most built up (3,534 people per square kilometre) and Mid Suffolk the least (118).

Younger council areas in Suffolk 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: Ipswich, West Suffolk and Babergh lead for residents under fifteen. Towards the bottom left are the areas with more single people and couples.

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

Ipswich, West Suffolk and East Suffolk have the highest walk scores in Suffolk. 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 Ipswich, 25% have none, the most in Suffolk. Areas towards the bottom right are where daily life depends least on driving.

A band D home pays £2,468 a year in Ipswich, the most in Suffolk, and £2,317 in Mid Suffolk, the least: a difference of £151 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 102 crimes for every thousand residents in Ipswich over the last year held, and 44 in Mid Suffolk. 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.