How is she able to keep it together? Because Louisville has been down this road before.
"This is our second time," Angell says. "They do the list every other year, and two years ago, we were number one. So we've gotten it two times in a row."
Here's how Money's Jessica Levine describes Louisville's attributes this time around:
This sunny, lively mountain town is safe (crime rates are among the lowest in Colorado) and easy to navigate. Lots of good jobs in tech, telecom, aerospace, clean energy, and health care can be found right in Louisville, and more are on their way. And there's world-class mountain biking, hiking, and skiing in the nearby Rockies. Real estate prices have barely budged since 2005, yet a typical three-bedroom house here still runs less than a comparable one in nearby Boulder. Its schools consistently rank among the top three academically in the Denver area.
The Money ranking isn't the centerpiece of the chamber's efforts to tout Louisville, Angell notes, "but it helps. We get so many phone calls as soon as the magazine goes out from people wanting to relocate. There'll be at least five or six e-mails or phone calls a day wanting relocation packets, because they've heard Louisville is number one."
Given this response, is Angell at all concerned that Louisville will outgrow the small-town definition? "Oh no," she says. "We have one more subdivision that's being built -- a brand new one. But other than that, we're pretty landlocked. We're a little over 19,000 in population now, and we won't get over 20,000. So it doesn't worry us."
As for those outsiders, they'd better hurry. "Our real estate has stayed pretty stable, and houses are keeping their property value," Angell says. "But we don't have a lot of them for sale."
Operators are standing by.
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