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

Stratford-on-Avon is the dearest at £364,750 and Nuneaton and Bedworth the cheapest at £235,000: the same budget buys 1.6 times as much home by price at one end of Warwickshire 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.

539 new homes are for sale across Warwickshire today. Nuneaton and Bedworth has the most (223), then Warwick (153).

Price per square foot takes the size of the home out of the comparison. It runs from £261 in Nuneaton and Bedworth to £384 in Warwick.

Sales for every thousand households show how often homes change hands, which is how much choice a buyer has in a year. Warwick is the busiest (31) and Nuneaton and Bedworth 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 Warwick, 4% of the homes sold in the last twelve months were sold new, the highest share in Warwickshire; in North Warwickshire it was 1%. New sales reach the register later than resales, so the latest months undercount them.

Sold prices fell 2.9% in the middle council area of Warwickshire over the last year. Stratford-on-Avon moved most (down 0.1%) and Rugby least (down 5.8%).

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 North Warwickshire (up 4.5%).

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

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

Distance to Birmingham does not explain prices in Warwickshire: 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.

Unusually, council areas further from Birmingham have loosely fewer workers driving to work.

Unusually, council areas with more schools judged good or better are loosely cheaper here: about £25,000 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 Stratford-on-Avon average the highest in Warwickshire (54.1) and those of North Warwickshire the lowest (42.5).

Results are clearly higher further from Birmingham, 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. Nuneaton and Bedworth is the most built up (1,700 people per square kilometre) and Stratford-on-Avon the least (138).

Younger council areas in Warwickshire 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: Rugby, Nuneaton and Bedworth and North Warwickshire lead for residents under fifteen. Towards the bottom left are the areas with more single people and couples.

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

Warwick, Nuneaton and Bedworth and Rugby have the highest walk scores in Warwickshire. 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 Nuneaton and Bedworth, 19% have none, the most in Warwickshire. Areas towards the bottom right are where daily life depends least on driving.

A band D home pays £2,532 a year in North Warwickshire, the most in Warwickshire, and £2,462 in Warwick, the least: a difference of £71 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 112 crimes for every thousand residents in Nuneaton and Bedworth over the last year held, and 71 in Stratford-on-Avon. 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.