Bathurst, Newcastle, Maitland, Wagga Wagga and Wollongong also made the cut in the piece, written by Tawar Razagh, which outlined each centre’s median house price at the end of 2018, and the growth of that figure in the previous 12 months.

Orange’s figures – $392,500, up 8.13 per cent over the year – put it at the top of the pile.

The article suggested Orange’s positioning as “food and wine destination for Sydneysiders looking for a weekend getaway [had] drawn keen interest from investors”.

It quoted Century 21 Orange director Andrew Vogler as saying the city was “quite trendy”.

“Going back 15 years ago it was just that cold place on the weather map, but now dozens of girls come up for wine weekends,” Mr Vogler said.

“A lot of investors say they would move to Orange if they could get the work.”

Mr Vogler said the health sector was the biggest employer in town, with the Bloomfield private hospital under construction on Forest Road to be added to the suite of services, attracting even more people to the area.

Mr Vogler said Orange had a very stable property market with strong rental yields and only one year of negative house prices in the past 15 years.

The statistics among the other non-metropolitan centres were also impressive: Bathurst ($440,000 median house price, up 7.32 per cent over the year); Newcastle ($620,000, 3.33 per cent); Maitland ($475,000, 6.74 per cent); Wagga Wagga ($355,500, 8.72 per cent) and Wollongong ($815,000, down 4.12 per cent).