Fort Collins Co Real Estate

Fort Collins Co - Rated Best Place To Live!

Real Estate in Fort Collins, Colorado, a city of 128,000 nestled near the Rocky Mountains, may soon be taking a jump start.

Fort Collins, a little utopia just north of Denver, is the best place to live in the country, so says Money Magazine in its July assessment of the 100 most livable places in the U.S. Plenty of green space, great schools, low crime, and a knock-your-socks-off cultural environment chime in to rank Fort Collins real estate as the country’s foremost place to put down roots and build or buy a home.

Real estate buyers interested in greener acres couldn’t ask for more than Fort Collins’ 60 miles of biking and hiking trails and numerous parks. Horseshoe Reservoir attracts swimmers and boaters while 191 golf courses within 30 miles of Fort Collins provide a playground for golfers.

Real estate buyers coming to Fort Collins can look forward to a steady appreciation of home prices, according to local realtor Shelby Majors. The cost of a typical single-family home is $250,000.

“You can still get a good value for your dollar,” said Shelby.

The median annual family income in Fort Collins is $64,624 and with the annual cost-of-living adjusted, the family purchasing power is $59,781, according to Money Magazine. Job growth between 2000 and 2005 was 6.13 %, which only makes real estate in Fort Collins more attractive.

Fort Collins’ good schools and low crime translate into a happy combo for real estate buyers seeking a high quality of life. City officials and residents shunned spending tax dollars to attract big business and instead put money into their schools and parks, a fact which only heightens the desirability of real estate here.

City students beat the state average with superior test scores in reading and math. With the tech crisis behind it, Fort Collins schools just built a new junior high to accommodate a population growth in the south end of town.

“It’s neat!” said Majors. “The entire community is under the same school district. All the schools are great,.” Parents can trust their children will have superior schools.

As far as adults’ education goes, a total of 77.6 % of the residents have completed at least some college. A learned population attracts certain real estate buyers.

Real estate agents and buyers realize the tax advantage of having big companies located in their city. Even without the tax incentives, companies came to Fort Collins; Eastman Kodak, Hewlett Packard, and Agilent Technologies all reside here. “The city is also home to Colorado State University and top-ranked Poudre Valley Hospital, which provide 10,000 jobs between them,” according to Money Magazine.

Fort Collins’ weather may all by itself stimulate the interest of real estate agents and their home buyers; the annual precipitation is 15.84 inches and almost a third of the year the population enjoys blue skies and sunny days.

Once the kids are in good schools and safe neighborhoods, Fort Collins’ residents are free to look for fun things to do. The nearby Rocky Mountains promise a paradise of skiing, hiking, climbing, and Gold Medal rivers for sports fishing. A restored Old Town, lots of tempting restaurants (652 within 15 miles), numerous movie theaters, bars, and a flourishing cultural scene provide all the excitement of a big city real estate.

The arts draw a certain culturally-minded niche in the real estate market. The arts explode on the Fort Collins scene with show biz so electrifying that the lure of a big city is no contest. The Lincoln Center is the city’s cultural arts center with indoor and outdoor performance areas, but it is only part of the arts venue in Fort Collins. Music ranges from acclaimed African performers to classical strings, chamber to opera. The Opera Fort Collins presents three operas this year and hosts the Storybook Opera for young people. Elton John and Tim Rice – creators of The Lion King - have teamed up to write their version of Aida.

Dance includes tap, Afro-Brazilian, ballet, Jive, and Argentine Tango. Theater is rich with comedy and musicals. Then there is the “Imagination Series”, formerly the “Children’s Series”, which provides delight for young and old. In a nutshell, Fort Collins takes the arts seriously with excellence in performance and in support of art, music, and dance.

The wise real estate agent knows the importance of the arts to many buyers.

The city is ripe with fitness and exhilarating activities for young and old. Numerous parks include a pool, a farm, a BMX track, ice skating, a miniature railroad to ride, and a gym with a climbing wall, to name some. The senior center has so many activities the city has to state, “Over 18 only” may attend, while the adaptive recreation opportunities provide an abundance of things to do for people with disabilities, including wheelchair sports.

That excellent fitness provisions exist for people with disabilities is a major selling for some buyers.

Got beer? Fort Collins, home to The Anheuser-Busch Brewery as well as four other breweries, is the second largest producer of beer in Colorado. The breweries produce such favorites as Fat Tire, 90 Shilling, Z Lager, Poudre Pale Ale, Budweiser, and Bud Light.

What real estate buyers want is what they are getting in Fort Collins. According to Money Magazine, parents want an opportunity for themselves and their children to prosper and a quality of life that lets them enjoy the fruits of their labor.

Many people that look at Fort Collins homes also consider the communities of Carter Lake, Loveland, LaPorte, Windsor and Wellington for other more rural homes for sale.