Reviews & Comments
Fort Collins, CO
Plus and Minus -
10/27/2019We moved from the midwest to Fort Collins in 2014.
Pluses:
Beautiful location near Rocky Mountains, historic Old Town with lots of annual festivals, events, restaurants, outstanding breweries, active arts culture. Good K-12 school district and charter schools, excellent health care, tons of outdoor recreation like biking, hiking, white water rafting. It takes two - three hours to get to ski resorts. But it's less than an hour to Estes and Rocky Mountain National Park. People are incredibly friendly. Lots of great churches and other religious organizations, highly educated population, generally well balanced liberal vs conservative politics, home of outstanding Colorado State University (CSU). Only an hour drive to Denver and to Denver International Airport (DIA) as well. Property and sales taxes are lower than in the midwest probably due to Colorado tourism. Fort Collins has well managed city and county government. Beautiful and well maintained city, county, state and federal parks.
Cons: population is increasing rapidly and roads are totally inadequate. Traffic congestion is nasty in town and all along the I25 corridor (eastern side of the Rockies). Although we still have lots of sunshine, the air pollution in eastern Colorado is getting worse and it's noticeable most days. There's not a lot of diversity in Fort Collins but it's improving. BIGGEST con is minimal affordable housing choices, especially if you want to buy a single family home! Too many condos and apartments. Not many cities or towns are perfect.