Northern Colorado News Briefs

March 2024 | February 2024 | January 2024

March 2024

News BriefsColorado metro areas top for women in tech jobs

CoworkingCafe recently ranked the top U.S. metros for women working in tech. In the category of small metro areas Boulder came in at #1, Fort Collins #45 and Greeley #66; for mid-sized metro areas Colorado Springs ranked #13; and for large metro areas Denver ranked #9. A total of 208 metro areas were assessed based on a set of metrics including the percentage of female tech professionals, female tech earnings, unemployment rate and health insurance coverage. Click here to view the complete rankings.

Denver Zoo plans 570-acre preserve in Greeley

The Lembke Family in Greeley recently donated 570 acres of land to the Denver Zoo. The gifted land will become a private preserve for animal care, conservation and expanding breeding efforts to help threatened species survive. Click here to watch a video about the Lembke Family Preserve.

State’s economy on the rise

The Leeds Business Research Division at CU Boulder, in conjunction with the Secretary of State, recently released the Q4 2023 Quarterly Business & Economic Indicators report. Job growth for the state was slow but steady. Colorado’s unemployment rate for December 2024 came in at 3.4%, compared to a national rate of 3.7% posted in January 2024. Personal income growth in the third quarter of 2023 was the sixth highest in the nation. Click here to read the full report.

February 2024

News BriefsColorado 5th for proportion of small businesses

Qrfy.com, a company that specializes in QR code generation, recently analyzed U.S. Census Bureau data to find the percentage of registered businesses with fewer than five employees for each state throughout 2021. Colorado ranked #5, with 60.93% of all businesses being classified as small businesses. Preceding Colorado in the rankings were: Florida #1, New York #2, Wyoming #3 and Montana #4. Click here for a deeper dive into the data.

Colorado ski resorts top North America rankings

USA Today recently released a Reader’s Choice list of Top 10 Ski Resorts for the 2023/24 season and two Colorado resorts took top spots. Winter Park came in at #4 and Vail #7. Ski resorts were first nominated by a panel of experts and then readers voted on their favorites to determine the winners. Click here for the complete set of rankings by USA Today.

IRES 4th Quarter Report

Information and Real Estate Services (IRES) recently released their Q4 2023 MarketWatch Report. In Larimer County, the median sales price was $565,000 for Q4-2023, a 0.0% change year-over-year. The number of closed sales was down 23% dropping to 887. In Weld County, the median sales price was $500,000 for Q4-2023, a 4.2% increase year-over-year. The number of closed sales was down 21.5%, coming in at 1,2047. In Boulder County, the median sales price was $800,000 for Q4-2023, a 3.2% year-over-year increase. The number of closed sales was up 3.7%, coming in at 680.

January 2024

News BriefsFort Collins named Most Peaceful

Insider Monkey, a finance website that provides free insider trading and hedge fund data to ordinary investors, recently named Fort Collins the #1 Most Peaceful Place to Live in the U.S. Boulder came in at #2. Factors taken into consideration included noise pollution and access to local parks. Click here to read the full article.

Colorado economy poised for modest growth in 2024

CU recently released the annual Colorado Business Economic Outlook, which projects the state will add 41,900 jobs in 2024, a 1.4% increase over the 2023 worker total. Although Colorado’s population growth is forecast to slow over the next few decades, it is projected to continue to outpace the nation, growing at roughly twice the national rate. Colorado is forecast to increase from 1.7% of the U.S. population in 2020 to 2% by 2050. Click here to read the full report.

Proposed Front Range passenger rail

The Front Range Passenger Rail (FRPR) District recently voted to pursue use of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNFE) Railway freight route for passenger rail service on the Front Range. The route extends from Fort Collins to Pueblo and offers the most cost-effective solution as well as passes through the most population centers. Click here read more about the route selection and to view a map of the route. You can also learn more about the FRPR District at: www.ridethefrontrange.com.