Standing view · housing · Forest of Dean
improving, held with established confidence, formed on 31 August 2026 from movements in 2026-07.
The average house price in Forest of Dean was £287,381 in February 2026, when 82 homes were sold, falling to 68 in March. Rents were steady: a two-bedroom home cost £800 a month in February and £792 in March, and a semi-detached home £904 in May. Households in bed and breakfast accommodation fell to 16 in the first quarter of 2026, when 64 households were owed a prevention duty. Fewer households in emergency accommodation is the clearest favourable movement here.
A view is formed only where the evidence names a figure you can check. Each movement listed as a reason had to be large enough to matter and distinctive in at least one way — unusual against this area's own history, unusual against comparable areas, or sustained over several periods. A movement shared with peers counts for less, because it says something about the country rather than about Forest of Dean. Where no figure supports a direction we hold no view rather than a hedged one.
| Measure | Period | Direction |
|---|---|---|
| Households in bed and breakfast | 2026-Q1 | improving |
These figures carry no defensible direction of their own: a rising house price is good news to an owner and bad news to someone trying to buy, so we do not score one as an improvement. They are shown because they are part of the picture, and they did not decide the view above.
| Measure | Period | Series |
|---|---|---|
| Average house price | 2026-02 | — |
| Homes sold | 2026-02 | falling |
| Average private rent, two bedrooms | 2026-02 | — |
| Prevention duty owed | 2026-Q1 | rising |
| Homes sold | 2026-03 | falling |
| Average private rent, two bedrooms | 2026-03 | — |
| Average private rent, semi-detached | 2026-05 | — |