The average house price in the UK has crept up by less than one per cent so far this year, which is by most measures a flat-lining property market.
But such a weak national 'average' masks huge differences in performance across the UK.
While some places having been dropping like a stone, others have been surviving rising fast.
Towns with house prices rising at a faster rate than five per cent a year at the moment include Chipping Norton in the Cotswolds; Hampton in London's westerly suburbs; Hove, Hailsham and Uckfield in Sussex; Herne Bay in Kent; Teddington in Middlesex; and Walton on Thames in Surrey.
The differences are sometimes very wide – for example one town in Oxfordshire has enjoyed rising house prices of nearly 11 per cent over the past year while a village in County Durham is down by nearly 12 per cent year on year.
But how do you know how your area is faring when most house prices indices only drill down to large areas such as cities and counties?
According to PrimeLocation.com, the best are those impervious to the housing cold the rest of the UK has caught – and it's usually all about location, location, location.
The winners are almost all fashionable places to live popular with well-heeled rail commuters travelling into the UK's larger cities, with many but not all being those which are a manageable train ride into London.
Those that buck the London and South East trend include Crook in County Durham, Kettering in Northamptonshire, Leigh in Greater Manchester, Ilkely in West Yorkshire and Stalybridge also in Manchester.