Fort Collins/Loveland CO?

We were looking at moving to the Fort Collins /Loveland area.
What are peoples feelings on the area for a family with kids??

Thanks for all the answers. We are coming from Northern Arizona where housing prices are way up there, and gets alot more snow most the time. Your answers will help us with our decision. Thank you again

It is one of the best places in the state to raise kids. I have family in Fort Collins and have lived in Loveland but for only about 4-5 months. They are very safe cities with very good schools, low crime, low poverty rates, and lots of parks. The job market there is just as good as the rest of the country so its hard out there but you should be able to find something as the area is growing at a huge rate with new homes and businesses all over the place. The area is nice because you are in an area that is not rural but not very urban either, so the Ft Collins/Loveland/Greeley area is like one large suburb. Close enough to Denver for your big city activites yet far enough to get away from it all. I would say that the area however tends to be more iscolated from the Denver/Boulder metro and the Colo. Springs metro areas. Kind of hard to explain though even though technicaly, Ft.Co/Loveland are starting to be considered the metro area also. The only problems that you will experience there are high traffic volume and higher then average home prices. Hope some of this helped. Welcome to Colorado! (assuming your coming from a different state)

I have to agree witht he previous answer for a few items - raising a family here is great. I have a 9 year old son and we have a blast. I love the school he's in, and have heard the same about other schools. Also, job market is really good - with new jobs added every day. Check out the site www.NCEDC.com and that can give you some info on companies moving here.

As for home prices, I'd have to say that we're on the average side, and we're going to go up. Average home price over the past year was $235K for a single family home. We're not experiencing the downturn other parts of the country is due to the fact that we didn't have a huge, unsustainable increase in value over the past 7 years. It's a great time to buy now, and home prices should increase over the next few years.

Wonderful city to live in, wouldn't move for anything! Good luck with your decision.

That would be a great place for a family. The schools have a really good reputation - it's easy to get to the international airport (DIA) or Denver in general - there is a lot to do around there - the weather is quite agreeable - I think housing costs are a bit high but it's worth it to live in such a lovely state!