The army of Londoners who decided they wanted out during the pandemic made Oxfordshire - and especially the Cotswolds - one of Britain's hottest property hotspots in 2021 and 2022.
Its smart market towns and beautiful country villages were seen by many as the ultimate antidote to life in lockdown London, and prices skyrocketed.
Things have certainly calmed down this year, but prices in the county that gave us Inspector Morse, Soho Farmhouse, the dreamy spiers of Oxford and the shopping mecca of Bicester Village are now 22 percent higher than in 2019, according to research from estate agent Hamptons .
If you're planning to make 2024 the year you flee to Oxfordshire, these are Homes & Property's picks of the towns, cities and villages you need to get to know.
Value for money: Wantage
In a province full of expensive suburbs and ultra-affluent cities and towns, Wantage is a rare find.
This small but well-formed market town is set in the spectacular countryside of the Vale of White Horse, and the town center buildings dating from the 17th and 18th centuries are set along charming cobbled streets and alleys.
Despite its postcard qualities, the average property price in Wantage is £402,000. You can buy an average house for €442,000 and an average apartment costs €208,000.
Prices remain negative, with an average increase of two percent over the past year. But values have risen 15 percent since the pandemic began and 45 percent since 2013.
There is one big compromise about Wantage: the lack of a station.
Commuters should head to Didcot Parkway, a 20-minute drive away (there is also a bus). From there you can reach Paddington in around 40 minutes.
If this works, Wantage is a great choice for people who want to enjoy the modern conveniences of the city, plus easy access to the countryside.
It has a surprisingly active cultural life with a month-long summer festival of music and arts, and a separate literary festival.
Twice a week a market provides extra atmosphere in the city center, and all schools in the city are rated as good or excellent.
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Nightlife basically means the pub, but there are some really good traditional pubs in the city (we particularly like the fact that The Schouder of Mutton's restaurant is vegetarian), and there are more independent cafes than chains, which makes a refreshing change .
Most like London: Jericho, Oxford
Wandering the streets lined with pastel-coloured houses, admiring the tour boats moored on the Oxford Canal, or visiting the Jericho Café for brunch, this suburb less than a mile from the city center has the feel of a London village.
Unfortunately, Jericho has more in common with the capital than with its artisanal cafes and gastropubs.
Average prices are among the highest in the city, and even in the province.
Despite a difficult year for property, average prices rose by 3.5 per cent last year, breaching the £1 million mark for the first time. Houses sold for an average of £1.45 million, and apartments for £514,000.
One of Jericho's traditional two-up, two-down cottages would set you back around £600,000, and you can expect to pay around £450,000 for a two-bedroom conversion.
Locals include Slumdog Millionaire scriptwriter Simon Beaufoy and author Mark Haddon, of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, and - like Hampstead decades ago, before it became so expensive that only international millionaires could consider to move in - Jericho has a charming, artsy atmosphere, with an independent cinema, a summer community festival and mini weekend festivals held regularly on the canal.
For commuters, the station is a 15-minute walk away, and trains to Paddington take around 50 minutes.
And if you fancy getting back to nature, you can ooh and ahh at the horses grazing in Port Meadow or immerse yourself in Wytham Woods.
Least like London: Burford
This medieval town is in many ways the complete antithesis of London: quintessential country, from the dreamy Cotswold stone cottages to the silently quaint high street sloping down to the River Windrush, full of old-fashioned tea shops and independent shops selling antiques and homewares. to sell.
No wonder PR guru Matthew Freud chose Burford as the perfect location for his foray into hospitality.
The recently opened The Bull at Burford, a boutique hotel aimed entirely at calming the nerves of stressed Londoners with a dose of fresh air, featuring a 24-hour snack bar and yoga sessions, and four restaurants.
Parents do not have to worry about school places in Burford as there is only one primary school in the town, and one secondary school. Both are rated "good" by Ofsted.
With the Cotswolds on your doorstep, access to open space is also no problem.
And while London hosts Notting Hill Carnival and New Year's fireworks, Burford offers an endearingly homely early summer commemoration of the murder of a group of anti-Cromwellian soldiers during the English Civil War, with music, a procession and speeches.
If your shopping needs extend beyond tea biscuits and vintage plates, Oxford is 20 miles to the west, and Charlbury Station is seven miles away. Trains to Paddington take approximately an hour and fifteen minutes.
Burford prices rose sharply during the pandemic as Londoners rushed there to escape lockdown life in the capital. Partly as a result, average prices now stand at £856,000, a huge increase of 33 percent compared to 2019.
Best Connected: Henley-on-Thames
If you're still tied to the daily London commute, traveling from Henley to the capital is a piece of cake by Oxfordshire standards.
Peak hour trains to Paddington take 43 minutes. You do need to change at Twyford, but from there you can choose to stick to the main lines or take Crossrail to central London and beyond.
There are also local bus services to Maidenhead, High Wycombe, Reading or Wallingford, and the Henley Hopper, which operates weekday bus services around the city centre.
Henley is known for its annual royal regatta - and if middle-aged men wearing their striped club blazers aren't your thing, the champagne-filled summer ritual is a good opportunity to list your house on Airbnb and get away for a few days.
Henley is looking forward to it every day. The primary schools are all rated as good or excellent by Ofsted, while Gillotts School, the only secondary school, receives high marks from the schools watchdog.
The Chiltern Hills rise north and west of the city for long dog walks across the country. And the nearby village of Hambleden is on the stretch of the Thames immortalized in Kenneth Grahame's Wind in the Willows, and is great for swimming around Ferry Lane.
The city center is simply beautiful - only the hardest of hearts can be moved by the sight of the stone bridge over the River Thames (you'll have to ignore the gridlocked traffic crossing it) or the incredibly beautiful cottages along Friday Street.
Henley is full of picture-perfect pubs like The Bell or, just across the river, The Little Angel, where you can dine on a menu of chic traditional pub fare or choose from a charcuterie board.
And although most of the major coffee chains are represented in the city center, there are also indies such as the Geo-Café.
For something different, Kenton Theater offers a program from ballet to stand-up comedy.
Henley's combination of commuter friendliness and lifestyle means it is one of Oxfordshire's more expensive towns. Average prices start at £866,000, up 5.5 percent in the past year and 57 percent in the past decade.
You'll have to pay up to £5 million for one of the riverside mansions, and well over £1 million for one of the immaculate Georgian mansions.
But you could also opt for a three-bedroom terraced house (approximately £500,000) instead. There is not a great choice of apartments in Henley, and prices start at around £375,000 for a two-bedroom apartment, either in a historic building or purpose-built.
Child-friendly: Watlington
Situated right on the edge of the Chiltern Hills, this compact market town has everything an outdoorsy family could want: invigorating walks up the National Trust's Watlington Hill to admire the beautiful surrounding countryside, tennis and squash clubs, a skate park and playground, plenty of cycling trails and visits to the (thankfully heated) outdoor pool in nearby Wallingford.
Back in the city, Watlington Primary School is rated "outstanding" by Ofsted, and Icknield Community College (seniors) gets a "good" report from the schools watchdog.
The city center has a lot of rural charm and there is a surprising amount to do.
There are traditional pubs such as the Fat Fox Inn, as well as cafes such as the Spire and Spoke - youngsters will enjoy the pizza menu and tepees in the garden.
There's also an award-winning butcher, Calnan Brothers, and a bakery, The Orange Bakery, which operates a weekly pop-up where you can stock up on sourdough and pastries, although unfortunately this one isn't a candlestick maker.
Home buyers also get decent value for their money in Watlington.
Average prices have remained stable in recent years at an average of £527,000, and have risen by 35 per cent below inflation over the past decade.
This weak performance is partly because Watlington has no train station.
Commuters should drive to High Wycombe, 14 miles east, for trains to Marylebone in just under 26 minutes, or board the Oxford Tube bus from Lewknor, a village three miles away, for an hour's journey to the center of London.
