MONEY Magazine Announces America’s Best Places to Live 2006

Fort Collins, Colorado tops list
Fort Collins, Colorado tops list

RISMEDIA, July 18, 2006?MONEY magazine has named Fort Collins, Colo., the Best Place to Live in America. The magazine released its annual Best Places list yesterday.

Fort Collins was followed by (2) Naperville, Ill., (3) Sugar Land, Texas, (4) Columbia/Ellicott City, Md., (5) Cary, N.C., (6) Overland Park, Kans., (7) Scottsdale, Ariz., (8) Boise, Idaho, (9) Fairfield, Conn., (10) Eden Prairie, Minn. Profiles of the top 10 and a full winner’s list appear in MONEY’s August issue, on sale July 24, and visitors to MONEY’s Web site, CNNMoney.com, can pore over the numbers on more than 700 places considered for this year’s list.

“This year we set out to find small livable cities that had the best possible blend of good jobs, low crime, quality schools, plenty of open space, rational home prices and lots to do,” said MONEY Executive Editor Craig Matters. “These places reflect the qualities that most Americans want when it comes to a place to live and raise a family – the opportunity for themselves and their children to prosper and a quality of life that lets them enjoy the fruits of their work.”

Starting with an initial list of 745 places that have populations above 50,000, MONEY’s team of editors and writers undertook several months of research, reviewing data on a wide range of economic and quality-of-life indicators. Working with data provider Onboard of New York City and consultant Bert Sperling of BestPlaces.net, MONEY’s team narrowed the list and then visited cities across the country, interviewing residents, community leaders and local officials before compiling the final rankings.

“This process led to naming Fort Collins, Colo. as No. 1,” said Matters. “Fort Collins combines the vibrancy of a city with the comforts of the suburbs – good jobs and schools, a lively downtown, reasonable cost of living and, up there in the Rockies, an incredible outdoor life – it’s the kind of place people want to live in.”

For the complete list and more, CLICK HERE Online at www.cnnmoney.com, users can view detailed stats on places in their area, check out maps highlighting top employers, museums and other points of interest, compare their favorite city against the magazine’s 10 winners, and sound off about the list on the Best Places blog.

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