Birmingham

Terraced brick streets stretch out from the centre in every direction here, punctuated by the odd corner shop and the kind of density that tells you this is a proper city, not a suburb pretending to be one. Birmingham pulls in a young crowd — the median age sits well below the national figure — students, first-jobbers, and families who've traded space elsewhere for the sheer amount going on. It doesn't feel like anywhere in particular; it feels like the middle of things.

The practical picture is mixed in an honest way. Housing is genuinely accessible by national standards — a median price of £230,000 against a national £281,000 puts Birmingham among the more affordable big cities, and that affordability grade reflects it. Most sales here are freehold terraces, which tells you what a typical For Sale board looks like: two-up two-down, owned outright rather than leasehold, the default form of housing across the city rather than the exception. Schools are a genuinely varied bag — the average Ofsted rating sits right at the national norm, and Progress 8 scores hover close to zero, meaning outcomes are neither a draw nor a warning sign in themselves. St Saviour's C of E Primary and Nansen Primary both carry Good ratings if you're searching close in, and Parkfield Community School holds Outstanding status for parents who want to aim higher. Transport is where the city undersells itself a little — with 34 rail stations across the area including Adderley Park, Duddeston, Aston and Gravelly Hill, plus the Curzon Street Metro stop, the rail network is dense, but the transport grade lands at just C, suggesting the connections aren't always the smooth kind you'd hope for given how much track there is.