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

North Tyneside is the dearest at £212,000 and Sunderland the cheapest at £150,000: the same budget buys 1.4 times as much home by price at one end of Tyne and Wear 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.

502 new homes are for sale across Tyne and Wear today. Sunderland has the most (208), then Newcastle upon Tyne (122).

Price per square foot takes the size of the home out of the comparison. It runs from £168 in Sunderland 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. North Tyneside is the busiest (25) and South Tyneside the quietest (19), around a middle of 21.

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

In Gateshead, 1% of the homes sold in the last twelve months were sold new, the highest share in Tyne and Wear; in South Tyneside it was 0%. New sales reach the register later than resales, so the latest months undercount them.

Sold prices rose 0.6% in the middle council area of Tyne and Wear over the last year. North Tyneside moved most (up 1.0%) 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 3.2%, led by North Tyneside (up 8.4%).

Over three years the dearer council areas of Tyne and Wear have loosely grown faster than the cheaper ones, widening the gap between them.

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 £55 more per square foot across Tyne and Wear, a clear pattern: on a home of a thousand square feet that is about £55,000.

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

Unusually, council areas with more schools judged good or better are clearly cheaper here: about £45,000 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 North Tyneside average the highest in Tyne and Wear (48.6) and those of South Tyneside the lowest (43.5).

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. Newcastle upon Tyne is the most built up (2,646 people per square kilometre) and Gateshead the least (1,378).

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

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

In the middle council area of Tyne and Wear, 15% of households rent privately. Dearer areas loosely have more renters, as buying is further out of reach there.

Newcastle upon Tyne, North Tyneside and South Tyneside have the highest walk scores in Tyne and Wear. 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 Tyne and Wear. 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 Tyne and Wear, 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 121 crimes for every thousand residents in Newcastle upon Tyne over the last year held, and 90 in North Tyneside. 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.