Moving to Margate, FL puts you in a 9-square-mile Broward County suburb where a two-bedroom rented for about $2,150 in mid-2026 and the Atlantic is 7.5 miles east. Margate sits between Coral Springs, Coconut Creek and North Lauderdale, holds about 58,700 people and runs almost entirely on a handful of commercial roads. This guide covers what living here costs, which neighborhoods suit which buyers, the job market, the schools, the weather and the parts of settling in that nobody warns you about.
Margate at a Glance: Nine Square Miles Between Coral Springs and the Coast
Margate is a Broward County city of tree-lined streets and roughly 30 miles of canals, and it’s the 14th largest of the county’s 31 municipalities. The city runs 19 parks and recreational facilities, sits 7.5 miles from the ocean and is about 20 minutes from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and Port Everglades (City of Margate). The 2020 Census counted 58,712 residents, up 10.2% from 2010, according to Margate’s Wikipedia entry.
A few roads carry nearly everything. Atlantic Boulevard is the main commercial spine and the fastest route east to Pompano Beach. State Road 7, which everyone here calls 441, is the north-south strip where the Caribbean, Haitian, Dominican and Thai kitchens sit. Margate Boulevard holds City Hall and the city’s only golf course, and Sample Road frames the north edge.
The name is a portmanteau. Founder Jack Marqusee joined the "Mar" of his surname with "gate" from "gateway." Margate became a town on May 30, 1955 and a city in 1961, so much of the housing stock is older than what you’ll find in Coral Springs or Weston.
What Living in Margate Actually Costs
Margate is a mid-priced Broward suburb, not a cheap one. Salary.com puts the city’s 2026 cost of living at roughly $2,860 a month for a single person and $6,299 for a family of four, about 16% above the U.S. average (Salary.com). Housing and insurance drive most of that gap.
A two-bedroom apartment averaged about $2,150 a month in mid-2026, according to Apartments.com’s Margate rent trends. Set against a median household income of $62,450 in the Census Reporter profile of Margate, a two-bedroom takes a serious bite, which is why so many Margate households are either long-tenured owners or two-income renters.
Buying is the calmer side of the market. The median owner-occupied home is worth $316,200 in the same Census data, well below the metro median, and that’s the strongest argument for the city over its pricier neighbors. Run your own numbers before you commit, and if you’re comparing quotes, the moving cost calculator is a faster starting point than three phone calls.
Most people who rent first end up with less closet space than they left behind, since Margate’s older apartment stock wasn’t built for the way people accumulate now. The small 5×5 storage lockers are the ones renters ask about most, usually for holiday bins, sports gear and the boxes that never got unpacked.
Margate Neighborhoods and Who Each One Suits
Margate doesn’t have dramatic neighborhood swings. The whole city fits inside about 9 square miles. What changes from one section to the next is housing type, age mix and how far you sit from traffic.
The Atlantic Boulevard Corridor: Errands, Restaurants and the Shortest Drive to Everything
The Atlantic Boulevard corridor is where most of the city’s plazas, restaurants and big-box retail sit, which makes it the easiest place to live if you hate making two trips. Lakewood Shopping Center at 5385 West Atlantic Boulevard is anchored by Marshalls, with Rack Room Shoes and a Bath & Body Works that opened in 2025 alongside. Parking is free and plentiful, and the Marshalls home aisles are useful when you’re furnishing a place.
The Walmart Supercenter at 5555 West Atlantic Boulevard is the practical answer to where a new arrival buys everything in week one, from a shower curtain to a lawn chair. About 2 miles west, Palm Lakes Plaza is a Publix-anchored center with a bank, a pet hospital and a string of service businesses.
You can’t walk between plazas here. Each center is walkable inside itself, and then you get back in the car. Set expectations accordingly if you’re arriving from a city with sidewalks that go somewhere.
The State Road 7 Corridor: Caribbean Kitchens and the Cheapest Weekly Shop
The 441 corridor is the most internationally flavored part of Margate and the reason the food is better than a suburb of this size has any right to expect. Delish Caribbean Restaurant at 171 South State Road 7 cooks Haitian creole: griot, tasso, stew chicken, fried fish and conch fritters. It runs from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. most days, to midnight on Friday and to 4 a.m. on Saturday, which makes it one of the few genuinely late kitchens in the city.
Grace of God Restaurant at 360 South State Road 7 is the other Haitian anchor, open 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a week. Order the patties or the griot; it’s a quick, casual stop that suits takeout. Farther north, Marthabrae Jamaican Restaurant at 3213 North State Road 7 covers the jerk chicken, oxtail and curry goat side of the island map, seven days a week.
Groceries on this corridor are cheap and specific. The Shoppes at Margate at 300 to 366 South State Road 7 is a 52,758-square-foot center with 11 stores, and Alianza Supermarket sits just south at 636 South State Road 7. Town Shoppes of Margate at 2450 North State Road 7 pairs Festival Supermarket with a Bealls carrying clothing, shoes and home goods for the whole family. The corridor’s drawback is traffic: rush hour is heavy and left turns are the daily frustration.
Margate Boulevard and the Civic Core: City Hall, the Library and Oriole Golf Club
Margate Boulevard is the quiet institutional spine, and it’s where the city’s events calendar actually happens. City Hall sits at 5790 Margate Boulevard, and the Margate Catharine Young Library, a Broward County branch nearby at 5810 Park Drive, runs free children’s programs. It’s air-conditioned, open until 8 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday and closed Sundays, which makes it the obvious fallback on a wet afternoon.
Oriole Golf Club at 8000 Margate Boulevard is the only golf course still operating in Margate: 18 holes, semi-private but open to the public, designed by Bill Dietsch and open since 1971. The layout is fairly open off the tee, the greens are small and undulating, and it has a grass driving range, which is less common than it should be in Broward (Oriole Golf Club).
The Northwest Focal Point Senior Center is the amenity that should decide the move for a lot of readers. It’s a city center serving adults 60 and over, with arts and crafts, live music, fitness classes, bingo and organized day trips. Because it’s a special district of the city rather than a private club, registration is free.
The Oriole Golf and Tennis Club Area: Condos, Villas and 55-Plus Living
The condo and villa communities around the Oriole course hold much of Margate’s 55-plus housing. This is where the city’s age profile shows: the 2020 Census put the median age at 44.3, with 21.5% of residents aged 65 or over (Margate’s Census profile). If you want a tee time you can reach in minutes and an association that handles the roof, this is the section to shop.
Downsizing into one of these units is a common Margate move, and it’s the one that goes wrong most often. A two-story house in Coral Springs doesn’t fit into a two-bedroom villa, and the furniture you keep for the grandchildren has to live somewhere. A one-bedroom apartment’s worth of furniture fits in the 10×10 storage units, which is the size most downsizers land on after they measure.
North Margate: Quiet Streets, Peppertree Plaza and a Short Hop to Coconut Creek
North Margate is palm-lined residential streets in the northern third of the city, closer to Sample Road and the Coconut Creek line. The housing is older single-family stock on quiet blocks, and the trade is simple: you give up the restaurant density of Atlantic Boulevard and gain a shorter drive to Butterfly World and Tradewinds Park, about 10 minutes north.
Peppertree Plaza on West Sample Road is where this side of the city does the weekly shop. The 249,571-square-foot center is anchored by Winn-Dixie, along with Office Depot, Planet Fitness and Dollar Tree. Hillsboro Antique Mall moved to 5460 West Sample Road in the same plaza after 16 years at Festival Marketplace, so older directions to it are wrong. It bills itself as South Florida’s largest antique mall, women-led and family-owned with more than 150 vendors, and it opens only from noon to 6 p.m. daily, which catches people out.
Coral Gate, Winfield and Southgate: Canal Streets and Lower Price Points
The canal-side pockets in the middle and south of the city are the value play. Coral Gate is built around Coral Gate Park, a neighborhood park with two full-size tennis courts, three half-court basketball courts, six pickleball courts, covered seating and a rentable pavilion for birthday parties. Its playground was temporarily closed for renovation when we checked.
Winfield wraps around Winfield Park at 6400 Winfield Boulevard, a canal-front park with a covered playground, swing benches, a basketball court, two fishing docks and a boat ramp on the city’s Blueway Trail. It’s free, quiet and a few minutes from the traffic on 441, and the boat ramp is the useful part if you keep a small boat or kayak.
Southgate, toward the North Lauderdale line, and Margate Estates, an established single-family pocket, round out the residential options. Residents describe Southgate as quiet, and Margate Estates suits buyers who want a conventional Broward single-family street rather than a condo association and its rules.
The Job Market, Commuting and Getting Around From Margate
Margate is a commuter city inside a large metro, so most residents work outside it. The city names Northwest Medical Center, the City of Margate itself, Broward County Public Schools and several large auto dealerships among the area’s major employers. The mean commute runs 30.7 minutes in the Census Reporter profile, a little above the regional average.
The road position is the real selling point. Florida’s Turnpike and the Sawgrass Expressway are both close, I-95 is reachable on Atlantic Boulevard or Sample Road, and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International is about 20 minutes away. Several Broward County Transit routes cross the city, and the free Margate Community Bus runs weekdays and Saturdays until 4:30 p.m., but in Margate the bus is a supplement rather than a plan. You’ll need a car.
Rush hour is worth understanding before you pick a street. Atlantic Boulevard and 441 both back up between 4 and 6 p.m., and the left-turn signals on 441 are the specific thing that turns a 10-minute errand into 25. Where you live relative to those two roads changes your daily experience of the same city.
Schools, Parks and Family Life in Margate
Margate’s public schools are run by Broward County Public Schools, and school assignment follows the district’s boundary map rather than city limits (Broward County Public Schools). Check the exact address before you sign anything, because a street near the Coconut Creek or North Lauderdale line can zone somewhere you didn’t expect.
Roughly 27.4% of Margate households had children under 18 at the 2020 Census, and the city’s parks system does a lot of the work of keeping them entertained. Firefighters Park at 2500 Rock Island Road is the best all-around park in the city: five full-size tennis courts, two pickleball courts, lighted basketball courts, a sand volleyball court, an artificial turf soccer rink, a half-mile walking trail with exercise stations, a dog park and Safety Town, where children learn road safety. The shade-covered playground matters enormously in July.
Calypso Cove, the city’s aquatic facility at 6200 Royal Palm Boulevard, runs weekends only through September 27, 2026 and then closes until spring. Admission for ages 5 and up is $6 for residents and $12 for nonresidents, and shade is limited, so bring a hat. When it’s out of season, the splash play area at the Margate Sports Complex is the alternative, and the same complex hosts the Sounds at Sundown concerts with food trucks, next on October 3, 2026 at 6 p.m.
Weather, Hurricane Season and the Practical Side of a Florida Move
Margate has two seasons, wet and dry, not four. NOAA’s 1991 to 2020 normals run from a January average high of 76°F and low of 59°F to an August high of 91°F and low of 77°F, and the city takes about 56 inches of rain a year (HistoricalClimate). September is the wettest month at 8.13 inches; February is the driest at 1.95. The comfortable stretch runs November through May, and Weather Spark puts the muggier part of the year at April 10 through December 1.
Hurricane season runs June 1 to November 30, peaks on September 10 and concentrates most of its activity between mid-August and mid-October (NOAA National Hurricane Center). Margate is inland at 13 feet of elevation, so storm surge isn’t the local threat. Wind, extended power outages and flooding in a city built around 30 miles of canals are. Ask about the roof age and the impact windows on any house you tour, because those two answers drive your insurance quote more than anything else.
The humidity is the part that surprises people who move furniture here from a dry climate. Wood swells, upholstery mildews, paper curls and electronics corrode in a closed garage between June and October. Climate-controlled storage in Margate exists for exactly that reason, and it’s the difference between retrieving a sofa and replacing one.
Storm prep here also has a storage dimension nobody mentions in the brochures. When a watch goes up, everything loose on a patio has to come inside, and a Margate garage is usually already full. Patio sets, grills, bikes and pool gear are classic contents of a 5×10 unit between June and November, and the people who sort it out in May aren’t the ones standing in line at the hardware store in September.
Settling In: Where Locals Eat, Shop and Spend Weekends
The first month is when the gaps in a move show up, so give yourself a few fixed points early. Toasted Cafe at 5428 West Atlantic Boulevard has been family-owned since 2016 and runs 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. every day, with Belgian waffles and omelettes on one half of the menu and spinach pie, gyro pita, moussaka and pastitsio on the Greek half. The kitchen shuts at 2, and weekend mid-morning is when the wait appears.
Lester’s Diner at 4701 Coconut Creek Parkway has been a South Florida name since 1967 and runs 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. It’s the default when nobody can agree on anywhere else. For a real dinner out, Pasta And at 4990 West Atlantic Boulevard does northern Italian with homemade pasta, with chefs Luigi and Esperanza Marenco in the kitchen alongside their son Gian Marco and a large Italian wine list. It’s dinner only, 5 to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday, closed Mondays, so book ahead on weekends. Our guide to the best restaurants in Margate goes deeper on the rest, and there’s a separate rundown of where to find brunch in Margate if weekend mornings are your thing.
Serious shopping happens about 10 minutes west at Coral Square in Coral Springs, an enclosed mall open since October 1984 and anchored by JCPenney, Kohl’s and two Macy’s stores. The Margate shopping guide covers the antique malls, outlets and thrift options in more detail.
Weekends fill quickly once you know the radius. Butterfly World in Coconut Creek keeps about 20,000 butterflies and birds about 10 minutes north, inside Tradewinds Park, a 625-acre Broward County regional park where a model steam train runs on the third weekend of the month. Fern Forest Nature Center, also in Coconut Creek, has more than 30 fern species, an accessible Cypress Creek boardwalk, an observation platform on the Prairie Overlook Trail and no admission charge. The city’s own calendar carries Movies in the Park, the International Festival, a Fourth of July parade and fireworks, and the Winter Festival in December (City of Margate Special Events). For a fuller list, see things to do in Margate and, if you’re timing a visit before the move, the best time to visit Margate.
One practical note on timing. If your closing date slips or your lease dates don’t line up, which happens constantly in Broward, a three-bedroom home’s furniture fits into a 10×20 storage unit for the weeks in between. Working through a moving checklist a month out is the cheapest way to find that problem early rather than on the day.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Margate, Florida a good place to live?
Margate suits people who want Broward County access without Coral Springs or Boca Raton prices. The median home value is about $316,200 in the Census Reporter profile, the city runs 19 parks and a public-access golf course, and the airport is 20 minutes away. The trade is that it’s car-dependent, the housing stock is older and there’s no beach inside the city limits.
What’s it like living in Margate?
Daily life in Margate is suburban and low-key. You drive to plazas rather than walk to shops, you eat well and cheaply on the 441 corridor, and you plan outdoor time around the morning from June to October. The city is genuinely mixed, with a large 65-plus population alongside families, and it has an active events calendar for a city of 58,700.
What are the pros and cons of moving to Margate, FL?
The pros are price relative to neighboring cities, quick access to the Turnpike, the Sawgrass Expressway and the airport, Oriole Golf Club inside city limits and strong parks. The cons are older housing that needs roof and window scrutiny for insurance, a cost of living about 16% above the U.S. average, heavy rush hour on Atlantic Boulevard and 441, and no walkable downtown.
What’s the ethnicity of Margate, Florida?
Margate is one of Broward County’s more evenly mixed cities. The 2020 Census recorded 30.9% non-Hispanic White residents, 31.5% non-Hispanic Black, 27.1% Hispanic or Latino of any race and 4.3% Asian (Margate’s Census profile). That mix shows up most obviously in the food, with Haitian, Jamaican, Dominican, Mexican, Greek and Thai kitchens all within a few miles.
Are Pompano Beach and Margate, FL the same?
No. Pompano Beach and Margate are separate Broward County cities. Margate is inland, about 7.5 miles west of the ocean, while Pompano Beach sits on the Atlantic and has the pier, the public beach and the fishing village. Atlantic Boulevard runs straight from Margate to the Pompano Beach oceanfront in about 20 minutes off-peak.
How far is it from Fort Lauderdale to Margate, Florida?
Margate sits roughly 14 miles northwest of downtown Fort Lauderdale, which is about 30 minutes by car outside rush hour and longer in season. Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and Port Everglades are both about 20 minutes from the city. Margate has no rail station; the nearest Brightline stations are in Fort Lauderdale and Boca Raton.
Storage and the First Few Months in Margate
Value Store It’s Margate storage facility rents month-to-month with no long-term contract, which is what you want when a move has moving parts. The lineup runs wider than the three sizes people usually picture: 10×5 units take the contents of one room, like a home office you’re packing up, 5×15 units hold a studio apartment, and 10×15 units hold a two-bedroom apartment without the Tetris. At the top end, the 10×30 handles a four-bedroom home, a small business inventory or the contents of a renovation.
If you’re still deciding, measure first and rent second. Units can be reached every day, each carries its own door alarm, and packing supplies are available on-site so you aren’t making a separate trip. Stop in once you have a closing date, and you can sort the space question before the truck arrives rather than after.
