Fort Collins named best Colorado city for families

Business Week recently named Fort Collins as Colorado’s Best Place to Raise Kids.

The magazine said the town, which is home to Colorado State University and nearly 126,500 residents, has excellent schools, low crime and a vibrant downtown, dubbed Old Town, in addition to miles of hiking and biking trails, 600 acres of parks and 5,000 acres of natural areas.

Business Week named the best places state by state this year, instead of ranking them nationwide. It worked with OnBoard Informatics, a New York-based provider of real estate analysis, to select towns with a minimum of 50,000 residents and a median family income between $40,000 and $100,000. It then narrowed its search down with weighted criteria, including school performance, number of schools, household expenditures, crime rates, air quality, job growth, museums, parks, theaters and other amenities, and diversity. The magazine weighted school performance and safety most heavily, but also gave strong consideration to amenities and affordability.

The organizing principle was affordability, according to the magazine, so it weighted the results to prevent pricing out most readers. Some cities may have performed well in categories such as schools and amenities, but were too expensive for many to afford to live there. Other cities may have not made the list because of a higher crime rate. Fort Collins has a median household income of $76,172, according to Business Week.

Aurora and Loveland were Business Week’s runners up for the Best Places to Raise Kids in Colorado. Other cities named tops in their state around the nation were Mount Prospect, Ill.; Murfreesboro, Tenn.; Arcadia, Calif.; and Columbus, Ohio. To find out what other cities were named best for families in their states, visit http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/nov2008/pi2008117_238652.htm.