Foreclosures in Money's 'Best Places to Live'

Money magazine came out last week with another of its Top 10 lists; this one called "America’s Best Places to Live 2006." And the winner is . . .  Fort Collins, Colorado.

Why Fort Collins? The folks at Money say it’s because the city, “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.”

Money’s writers and editors selected from an initial pool of 745 “livable” cities with populations of more than 50,000 with good jobs, low crime, quality schools, plenty of open space, lots to do, AND rational home prices. They could have added a healthy foreclosure market as well.

According to the latest data on the RealtyTrac website, Fort Collins has only 20 properties in the pre-foreclosure stage, but 226 properties are ready to go to auction and another 156 are bank owned (REO). That’s more than all the for sale by owner, resale and new homes listed on RealtyTrac in Fort Collins

The rest of Money’s Top 10 list includes: 2) Naperville, Ill.; 2) Sugar Land, Texas; 4) Columbia and Endicott City, Md.; 5) Cary, N.C.; 6) Overland Park, Kan.; 7) Scottsdale, Ariz.; 8) Boise, Idaho; 9) Fairfield, Conn.; and 10) Eden Prarie, Minn.. Like Fort Collins, most of them have homes somewhere in the foreclosure pipeline, proving that foreclosures are present even in highly desirable locales.

As always, for investors interested in foreclosure property it’s a matter of doing your homework to get ideas on where to search. This list in Money magazine, supported by data acquired from RealtyTrac, is a prime example of this.