Check out Housing Prices in your area – from BBC news
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/in_depth/uk_house_prices/html/fk.stm
Just experimented with my postcode, my parents postcode and a few of my friends postcodes
Housing Average Cost —
Cheltenham – £235,899
South Somerset £206,900
Bury St Edmunds – £201,524
Bristol £182,992
Derby – £140,559
That is quite an astonishing difference!
Cheltenham has seen a 1% drop in house prices in the last year, as it is still one of the most desirable places to live. Derby has seen 8.5%, and Bury St Edmunds an 11.9% drop. DCG, Bury is the place to get a bargain if you want to move and have the money, but for cheap, try Derby. For some reason Derby is dirt cheap with houses costing what might buy you a garage in Cheltenham!
Bristol is the place not to own a house though – house prices have fallen -16.1% in the last year.
Mind you I just thought I’d try something else. Just move 8 miles up the road to Gloucester from Cheltenham – the average property is £146,612 – almost as cheap as Derby, and that 8 miles represents ninety thousand pounds saving – whereas houses in Cheltenham are almost the same price as a year ago (and I assume student tenancies and housing demand hold that steady as much as anything) in Gloucester there has been a 15% drop in the last twelve months. So really, at twelve thousands pounds saved a mile, head west young man, to Gloucester!
cj x
"And sometimes he's so nameless" 
Mm, Ipswich (where I live) to the neighbouring Suffolk Coastal (which is basically Woodbridge, Felixstowe and a load of villages) shows a similar £140K to £230K disparity. But at least our trains are a lot more frequent than theirs 😉
Yep – I’m guessing there it must be at least down to the holiday cottages – Orford Ness strikes me as an odd place to holiday though, and Blythburgh Common at night? Well it’s eerie, but not Las Vegas. As to the Walberswick Marshes…
Still with the electrification of the line you can commute to London easily now? My nephew has a garage somewhere in Ipswich.
Is the little RPG shop still going in Ipswich? Games & Puzzles? No that was Cambridge? Dungeons & Starships? I forget know, but sure you know the place I mean! I’m a Bury St Edmunds boy, brewed in the UK by Danes.
cj x
Mm, Southwold and Aldeburgh certainly drag the tone up somewhat. A detailed contour map of house prices would show some pretty sharp localized spikes.
People commute all the way down from Norwich these days — you’re lucky to get a seat at Ipswich. So I’ve been told; fortunately I’ve never had to myself!
There is a little RPG shop here called Central City Comics, but I don’t know if it’s a long-standing one; I’ve only been here a few years. I still get my own games from the Gameskeeper in Oxford…
Ah, I’m trying to remember the name of the shop as was! I too still use The Gameskeeper at Oxford whenever possible, excellent folks. I have probably not been to Ipswich except in passing in twenty years, though my parents live within thirty miles, and I have certainly been in “Suffolk Coastal” since then. 🙂
cj x
… and the football’s way better in Derby than in Cheltenham or any of the other places you mention! Housing has always been relatively inexpensive in Derby and the quality of life is pretty good.
Moving house are the most stressful things in life.
How to move
But with a little planning and our guide you can take the strain out of your move. Start your move at least a month ahead of time, so you have time to pack and take care of other tasks, such as selling your house or saying goodbye to friends and family members.
Take an inventory of your possessions. Use this list to determine the number of boxes and the size of the truck you will need for your move.
Think carefully about what you really need to take with you and what might be cheaper to replace or rent.