When you look around Northern Colorado right now, what conclusion would you reach about the economy? Drive through most neighborhoods and you see landscaping projects, additions or new homes going in. There are lots of public projects such as the nearly completed Colorado State University stadium, work on I-25 and lots of street projects. Then look at the significant construction taking place at area businesses.
The conclusion most of us would reach is that the Fort Collins-Loveland-Windsor area economy is hopping.
Your eyes don’t lie. According to the recent edition of Area Development Magazine, the Fort Collins region ranks #1 among mid-sized U.S. cities and #5 overall among all 394 metropolitan statistical areas in economic strength.
The top 10 in the Mid-Sized Cities are:
- Fort Collins, CO
- Santa Rosa, CA
- Elkhart-Goshen, IN
- San Luis Obispo-Pasco Robles-Arroyo Grande, CA
- Reno, NV
- Savannah, GA
- Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA
- Macon, GA
- Trenton, NJ
- Barnstable Town, MA
The top 10 Overall (Large-, Mid-, Small-Sized Cities) are:
- San Francisco-Redwood City-South San Francisco, CA
- San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA
- Oakland-Hayward-Berkley, CA
- Columbus, IN
- Fort Collins, CO
- Santa Rosa, CA
- Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin, TN
- Elkhart-Goshen, IN
- Bend-Redwood, OR
- Anaheim-Santa Ana-Irvine
Other Colorado cities on the list are:
- Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, #27
- Boulder, #66
Pretty cool, huh?!
But And that’s not where the story ends. We need to spend more time looking below the surface at some of the deeper trends. For instance, high tech is one of the pillars of the area economy and has been for years. But, from 2010-2015 we ranked 123rd in high tech gross domestic product growth.
So, while celebrating what we see with our own eyes and in some of the rankings, it’s wise to dig a little deeper and to keep focused on trying to grow our community income streams.