Market towns, defined as having a population of between 3,000 and 30,000 are a distinctive and important part of the English landscape. So, with many city dwellers dreaming of escaping the concrete jungle by moving to a more rural location, it’s not surprising that all but four of the nation’s market towns have seen a doubling of prices since 1995.

Halifax carried out research focusing on house prices in 112 English market towns and the key findings are:

• Ten market towns in England have an average house price in excess of £250,000.
  Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire is by far the most expensive with an average price of £550,495 followed by Midhurst in West Sussex (£279,840) and Ringwood in Hampshire (£279,266).
• Thirty-six market towns have an average house price above £200,000.
  The overwhelming majority of these towns are in the South East (21) and the South West (8). The most expensive market towns in the north are Lymm in Cheshire (£229,412), Wetherby in West Yorkshire (£226,643) and Easingwold in North Yorkshire (£219,804).
• Midhurst in West Sussex (223%) and Bodmin in Cornwall (221%) have recorded the biggest price rises since 1995.
  Twelve market towns have seen prices rise by at least 200% since 1995. All these towns are in the South East and the South West with the exception of Framlingham in Suffolk (211%). Outside the south (including East Anglia), Bingham in Nottinghamshire (194%) and Lymm (188%) have experienced the biggest price rises.
• House prices have at least doubled in all the market towns examined since 1995 with only four exceptions:
  Immingham (93%), Berwick upon Tweed (92%), Saltburn in County Durham (85%) and Ferryhill (54%).
• Two-thirds of the market towns analysed have an average house price above the average for their county.
  Prices in Beaconsfield are, on average, two and a half times more than in Buckinghamshire. Prices in Wetherby and Easingwold are approximately twice as high as those in their counties. At the other end of the spectrum, prices in Immingham in Lincolnshire and Ferryhill in County Durham are around half those of the surrounding county.
• The majority of market towns in most regions have an average house price above the regional average.
  The exceptions are East Anglia where prices in six of the eight towns are below the regional average and the East Midlands where 9 of the 17 towns have an average price below the regional average. In contrast, all six market towns in the North West have an average price above the regional average.
• House price performance compared with their counties has been mixed.
  Slightly more than a half of the towns surveyed have experienced a bigger rise in prices than their county both since 1995 and over the last year.
  
  Martin Ellis, Chief Economist at Halifax, commented:
  "Market towns are usually very attractive places to live. This is reflected in the majority of market towns having higher property prices than their surrounding counties and the more than doubling in average prices since 1995 in all but a few exceptions."