Forest doesn't give you much to go on from the road — no strip of shops to read, no obvious commuter tell, just the kind of quiet that makes you wonder what everyone does for a living and where they go of an evening. That's the honest starting point here: this is a place best understood by the numbers around it rather than a scene on the ground, because the ground itself hasn't been surveyed in detail. What we do know is the wider frame it sits in. Cornwall, the authority Forest belongs to, has a median house price a little above the national figure, and property here would need to be read against that local benchmark rather than a national one to mean much. The region's population is older than the England-wide average and its housing stock leans pricier across the board — detached homes in the South West sell for well above the national detached price, and even terraces command a premium over the country as a whole. If Forest follows that regional pattern, as most Cornish localities do, you're looking at a place shaped more by retirement and lifestyle buyers than by young commuter turnover. That regional context also hints at pace of life. The South West's employment rate sits close to the national one, its share of people in professional and managerial roles is unremarkable either way, and average population density across the region is a fraction of what you'd find in most of England — this is not dense, wall-to-wall living. Green space per head regionally runs noticeably higher than the national picture too, which tends to mean gardens, verges and a horizon rather than parks squeezed between terraces. None of that is confirmed for Forest specifically, but it's the air the whole area breathes. Who this suits is hard to say with precision when the place itself hasn't handed over its schools, its crime figures, its commute times or its street-level character. What can be said is that it sits within a slower, older, greener region than England's average, with house prices pitched a little above the national median and a housing mix that favours space over density. If that regional temperament appeals — and you're comfortable doing some legwork on the specifics before committing — Forest is worth a proper look in person rather than a verdict from a distance.