Let's move to Haslemere, Surrey

What's going for it? If you want to feel what it's like to be a 57-year-old financial services analyst, get on the 6pm train from Waterloo to Haslemere. A recent report in Country Life informs me that Haslemere contains perhaps the highest number of first-class season ticket holders in the country, though you can tell from the fancy watches and the crisp crease in their Savile Row trousers that some of them have to travel cattle class like the rest of us. When the 57-year-old financial services analysts alight at the station, they step into the comfort of their BMWs with a sigh (be gone, public transport), and glide up the hill, purring down another leafy lane, heavy with trees and high, flinty walls. Then it's through the electric gates and past high hedges to one of their roomy executive homes, at last. Haslemere, snoozing in a deep hollow in the wooded Surrey Hills, seems like a town built for homeliness, comfort and seclusion.

The case against Not what you'd call cheap, but you're not here for bargains, are you? Not what you'd call bohemian, but you're not here for thrills, either, are you?

Well connected? Trains: to London Waterloo in just under an hour, if you catch the right one (four to five trains an hour at peak times); the other way to Portsmouth in 40-50 minutes. Driving: the A3 passes by; 40 minutes to the M25 and Portsmouth, a slow hour to the beaches of the south coast.

Schools Primaries: St Bartholomew's CofE is "good", says Ofsted, and Camelsdale "outstanding". The town's secondary, Woolmer Hill, is "good". Lots of independents.

Hang out at… Some good'uns in the hinterland: the Mulberry Inn, Chiddingfold, or the idyllic Duke of Cumberland Arms past Fernhurst.

Where to buy It is almost entirely composed of tile-hung gables. Many, especially in the pretty old centre, are medieval originals, half-timbered cottages in-filled with red brick, or 18th- and 19th-century facsimiles. As you rise up the hills out of town into leafy lanes, you'll find arts and crafts, Edwardian and 1920s piles, still all tile-hung gables with equestrian facilities and dreamy views across the wooded downs.

Market values Vast detacheds, £800,000-£4m. Large detacheds, £500,000-£800,000. Detacheds, £350,000-£500,000. Semis, £275,000-£600,000. Terraces, £240,000-£340,000. Flats, £150,000-£325,000. Rentals: three-bed houses, £1,200-£1,500 pcm; one-bed flats, £600-£800pcm.

Bargain of the week Two-bed 1970s-80s terraced house, close to station, £200,000, with gpees.co.uk

Live in Haslemere? Join the debate below

From the streets

Caroline Yates "Hollycombe Steam Collection is an old-fashioned funfair in Liphook, which is full of old-style rides and a steam engine that goes around the woods and departs from a tiny platform."

Alex Anderson "There is so much National Trust open countryside surrounding Haslemere."