Nigel Lewis, head of content at www.findaproperty.com, says Tewkesbury is a model of regional economic success...

It is always dangerous to say that any town is better than others locally because real measures of success are difficult to come by. But at the moment all but one of Gloucestershire's 30-plus towns will have to bite their lip.

Because the annual Survey of British Happiness, conducted by lender Lloyds TSB, revealed recently that Tewkesbury has the best quality of life in the South West (by local authority), a reason for its 76,000-plus residents to feel even better about life, and maybe a reason for others to move there.

Like other towns high up the Lloyds TSB list, Tewkesbury is packed with people who are fit and well and enjoying long life; holding jobs paying above-average salaries; experiencing low crime; avoiding too much rainfall; basking in plenty of sunshine and having access to fast broadband, which it seems has become a prerequisite to happiness in the 21st century.

Also, Tewkesbury is a model of regional economic success – it's an ancient market town brimming with history, is brilliantly connected (being on the A38 main Gloucester to Worcester road and close to the M5) and has a thriving tourism industry and a resilient local economy all of which has helped the town ride the downturn with relative ease.

Another boon for Tewkesbury is that, unlike many other places high on happiness its house prices are not correspondingly dear.

At the moment asking prices there range from £52,000 for a one-bedroom ex-council flat to a £1.65m eight-bedroom historic detached mansion.

Such a wide range doesn't adequately illustrate the town's highly affordable housing market – nearly three quarters of Tewkesbury's homes are below the FindaProperty.com national average of £219,000, but value doesn't mean lack of choice.

For example, £199,950 buys a four-bedroom, three-storey townhouse in outlying Saxon Park.

The average house price in Tewkesbury is £213,900, or 7.5 times the average local family income of £28,400 and, like Britain's 'happiest town' – Hart in Hampshire – home owning comes at a price for many first time buyers in Tewkesbury.

But perhaps in this case the financial strain may be worth it – unemployment here (at approximately two per cent) is significantly below the national average of 8.3 per cent. Reason enough to be cheerful.