Research · Updated July 2026

Where house prices rose and fell over the past year

National averages hide a market that moves town by town. These are the strongest and weakest last-12-months moves among actively-traded towns in England & Wales, measured on completed sales — not asking prices.

Over the past twelve months, Monmouth recorded the strongest move of any actively-traded town — +16.2% on our smoothed index, to a £325,000 median — while Retford saw the weakest at -16.6%. The gap between the two ends of the table is the real story: a “national” housing market barely exists at the level where people actually buy.

Strongest year: top 15 towns by 12-month change

#Town1-yr change · Median

1Monmouth+16.2%£325,000 2Ferryhill+15%£73,750 3Tadley+14.9%£385,000 4Tonypandy+14.9%£107,000 5Cradley Heath+14.6%£200,000 6Normanton+13.8%£180,000 7Sandy+12.5%£330,000 8Dartmouth+12.4%£360,000 9Stanley+12.3%£89,995 10Mountain Ash+12.3%£110,000 11Sowerby Bridge+11.4%£175,000 12Otley+11.4%£285,000 13Axminster+11.2%£300,000 14Hexham+11%£260,000 15Bargoed+10.9%£135,000

Weakest year: bottom 15 towns by 12-month change

#Town1-yr change · Median

1Retford-16.6%£206,500 2Cobham-16.2%£897,500 3Ilminster-15.2%£292,250 4Bungay-14.8%£271,000 5Ripley-14.7%£207,000 6South Molton-14.6%£280,250 7Lutterworth-14.3%£340,000 8Tadworth-14.3%£555,000 9Horncastle-13.9%£215,000 10Moreton-In-Marsh-13.9%£450,000 11Ascot-13.7%£670,000 12Rye-13.4%£390,000 13Wigton-12.9%£199,998 14Cullompton-12.7%£294,000 15Cardigan-12%£240,000

Single-year local moves are noisy — a shift in what happened to sell can move a town’s figure. Treat direction as meaningful and precise decimals as indicative; each town’s guide shows the full trend in context.

5-year growth table →All rankings →

Methodology & use

For each town we build a quarterly median price index from HM Land Registry Price Paid Data (standard market sales), smooth it with a sales-weighted trailing four-quarter mean, and compare the latest point with a year earlier. Towns with fewer than 500 recent sales are excluded. The index is mix-robust: it tracks the median rather than the average, so a quarter of unusually large or small homes selling doesn’t masquerade as a price move. Figures refresh as sales are registered. Free to quote with attribution to Housometer and a link; regional cuts on request via contact.

Source: HM Land Registry Price Paid Data (© Crown copyright), Open Government Licence v3.0. Analysis: Housometer, July 2026.