Best PlacesFort Lauderdale, FL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Fort Lauderdale, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Distance to the water drives a lot of the difference between one part and the next. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Fort Lauderdale ranks 338th of 445 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. The coast is about 5 minutes away. Its strengths are state infrastructure and low taxes. The cost shows up in an overheated housing market, car insurance costs, and empty homes.
The best neighborhoods in Fort Lauderdale
BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.
The best areas in Fort Lauderdale
The parts of Fort Lauderdale, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the city.
Victoria Park
More adults hold degrees, local pay stretches further, and incomes run higher.
Harbordale, Rio Vista-Miami & Harbor Beach
More homes sit empty and fewer households have young kids.
Imperial Point, Coral Ridge Country Club Estates & Coral Ridge
More residents vote and health care is easier to reach.
Flagler Heights, Downtown Fort Lauderdale & Dorsey-Riverbend
Streets are more walkable and heat risk is lower.
Croissant Park, Tarpon River & River Oaks
Scores close to Flagler Heights, Downtown Fort Lauderdale & Dorsey-Riverbend, except that biking is worse here.
Broadview Park, Sunset & Melrose Manors
Crime runs lower, though it is noisier.
South Middle River & Lauderdale Manors
Homes cost less.
Lake Aire-Palm View, Palm-Aire Village & Roosevelt Gardens
Health outcomes score lower.
Durrs Homeowners, Washington Park & Boulevard Gardens
Prices have run up more.
Scores across Fort Lauderdale run from about the 3rd to the 88th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Fort Lauderdale's strengths and weaknesses
Fort Lauderdale ranks near the bottom because several of the basics fall short at once. State infrastructure, low taxes, and biking carry most of that.
The weak spots are broad rather than narrow: an overheated housing market, car insurance costs, and empty homes all drag on the score. Those are area averages, and the map below shows which parts run well above them.
Where Fort Lauderdale ranks high
- State infrastructureBetter than 95% of cities
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 95% of cities
- BikingBetter than 92% of cities
- WalkabilityBetter than 90% of cities
- TransitBetter than 90% of cities
Where Fort Lauderdale ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 3% of cities
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 5% of cities
- Low vacancyBetter than only 5% of cities
- Heat safetyBetter than only 5% of cities
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 7% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Fort Lauderdale
A household needs to earn about $145,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Fort Lauderdale home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $89,968, so buying stretches a typical household.
Where the monthly payment goes
Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses Fort Lauderdale's effective rate of 0.89%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Fort Lauderdale
Fort Lauderdale runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Fort Lauderdale.
Who works in Fort Lauderdale, and how
Work in Fort Lauderdale centers on professional & technical and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 73%
- Work from home 19%
- Transit, walk, or bike 8%
Life in Fort Lauderdale
Fort Lauderdale has more restaurants and bars per resident than 92% of cities and more parkland per resident than 84% of cities. The coast is about 5 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Fort Lauderdale and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Fort Lauderdale, month by month
Fort Lauderdale sees roughly 84 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 91 degrees. January highs sit near 78, with lows near 60. The comfortable stretch runs November through March.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 78° | 69° | 60° |
| April | 85° | 77° | 71° |
| July | 91° | 84° | 78° |
| October | 87° | 80° | 74° |
Flying in and out of Fort Lauderdale
Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International sits about 4 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 15.7 million passengers in 2025, with 180 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Fort Lauderdale
Schools across Fort Lauderdale average a B, better than 71% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Bayview Elementary SchoolA+ · 80% proficient
- Eagle Point Elementary SchoolA+ · 77% proficient
- Gator Run Elementary SchoolA+ · 73% proficient
Top middle schools
- Falcon Cove Middle SchoolA+ · 73% proficient
- Tequesta Trace Middle SchoolA · 63% proficient
- Sunrise Middle SchoolB+ · 52% proficient
Top high schools
- Cypress Bay High SchoolA · 74% proficient
- Fort Lauderdale High SchoolB+ · 55% proficient
- Stranahan High SchoolC− · 29% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Fort Lauderdale school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Fort Lauderdale measure by measure
Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare Fort Lauderdale against the other 444 cities.
Who Fort Lauderdale suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 19% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Fort Lauderdale
Is Fort Lauderdale a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Fort Lauderdale ranks 338th of 445 cities. It scores highest on state infrastructure, low taxes, and biking, and lowest on an overheated housing market and car insurance costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Fort Lauderdale expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $549,381. The overall cost of living runs about 19% above the national average. Set against a $89,968 median income, cost of living beats 29% of cities.
Is Fort Lauderdale safe?
Fort Lauderdale is safer than 9% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $390 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Fort Lauderdale?
July highs average about 91 degrees, and January highs near 78 with lows near 60. That works out to about 84 pleasant days a year, more than 35% of cities.
What are the best neighborhoods in Fort Lauderdale?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Victoria Park, Harbordale, Rio Vista-Miami & Harbor Beach, and Imperial Point, Coral Ridge Country Club Estates & Coral Ridge. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Fort Lauderdale good for families?
Schools beat 71% of cities, crime safety beats 9%, and childcare runs $969 a month.
Is Fort Lauderdale good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 29% of cities, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 61% of cities. About 19% of workers already work from home.
Compare Fort Lauderdale with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Fort Lauderdale. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Fort Lauderdale represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.
Fort Lauderdale detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Fort Lauderdale: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Fort Lauderdale: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Fort Lauderdale: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Fort Lauderdale: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Fort Lauderdale detail on related sites:
- CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
- ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
- CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.
Federal and public data:
- U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
- NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
- FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
- FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
- U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
- FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
- CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
- National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
- FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
- Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.
Your priorities
Move a slider to say how much a measure matters. Zero turns it off.