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

Horsham is the dearest at £435,000 and Arun the cheapest at £336,000: the same budget buys 1.3 times as much home by price at one end of West Sussex 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.

488 new homes are for sale across West Sussex today. Arun has the most (191), then Chichester (136).

Price per square foot takes the size of the home out of the comparison. It runs from £361 in Arun to £444 in Horsham.

Sales for every thousand households show how often homes change hands, which is how much choice a buyer has in a year. Mid Sussex is the busiest (31) and Crawley the quietest (21), 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 Chichester, 3% of the homes sold in the last twelve months were sold new, the highest share in West Sussex; in Crawley 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 West Sussex over the last year. Chichester moved most (up 2.4%) and Arun least (down 4.0%).

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 2.1%, led by Crawley (up 3.3%).

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

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

Being ten miles closer to central London costs about £17 more per square foot across West Sussex, a clear pattern: on a home of a thousand square feet that is about £17,000.

The further a council area is from central London, the more of its workers loosely drive to work.

In West Sussex, 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 Mid Sussex average the highest in West Sussex (52.0) and those of Crawley the lowest (43.3).

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. Worthing is the most built up (3,424 people per square kilometre) and Chichester the least (158).

Younger council areas in West Sussex are clearly 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: Crawley, Mid Sussex and Adur lead for residents under fifteen. Towards the bottom left are the areas with more single people and couples.

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

Worthing, Adur and Crawley have the highest walk scores in West Sussex. 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 Worthing, 22% have none, the most in West Sussex. Areas towards the bottom right are where daily life depends least on driving.

A band D home pays £2,548 a year in Adur, the most in West Sussex, and £2,418 in Crawley, the least: a difference of £130 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 135 crimes for every thousand residents in Crawley over the last year held, and 59 in Horsham. 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.