Moving to North Lauderdale, FL means settling into a 4.7-square-mile residential city in north-central Broward County where the median home value runs around $274,000 and nearly half of residents were born outside the United States. There’s no beach, no downtown core and no hotel inside the city limits. What you get instead is 17 city parks, two Publix-anchored plazas plus a Ross-anchored one, and a Caribbean and Latin food scene that punches far above the population. This guide covers cost of living, neighborhoods, schools, the job market, climate and the first two weeks.
North Lauderdale at a Glance: A Small City Inside a Big Metro
North Lauderdale is a landlocked suburb of 44,794 people at the 2020 Census, spread across 4.70 square miles (North Lauderdale census and city data). It was incorporated on July 10, 1963, uses ZIP codes 33068 and 33319, and answers to area codes 754 and 954. Margate sits to the north, Coral Springs to the northwest, Tamarac to the west and south, Fort Lauderdale to the east and Pompano Beach to the northeast.
The city has an origin story almost nobody uses. The land was grazing pasture for the Anderson Dairy Farm and crop ground for the Lena Lyons Stringbean Farm before Morris Lapidus, the architect behind the Fontainebleau and the Eden Roc in Miami Beach, laid it out as the first city he ever planned and nicknamed it the City of Tomorrow (City of North Lauderdale). His beacons and the Boulevard of Champions are still here.
Think about the geography in rings, because that’s how residents actually live here. Inside the city, everything is a 5- to 8-minute drive: the parks, the plazas, the restaurant run along McNab Road and Kimberly Boulevard. Ten to 15 minutes gets you Tamarac, Margate and Coconut Creek. Twenty to 35 minutes gets you Sawgrass Mills, Pompano Beach and Fort Lauderdale beach.
The Cost of Living in North Lauderdale
Housing is the reason people move here from elsewhere in Broward. Livability’s North Lauderdale data puts the median home value at $274,184, median monthly rent at $1,650, median property tax at $2,217 and median income at $63,822. The Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance’s read on the 2023 American Community Survey is close, at a household median income of $63,423 across 15,491 households and 16,305 housing units (Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance).
Florida charges no state personal income tax, which is the single biggest budget swing for anyone arriving from the Northeast (Florida Department of Revenue). Spend the savings carefully, because two South Florida line items catch newcomers out. Property insurance is the one to quote before you make an offer rather than after, and cooling a house from May through October costs real money in a humid climate that gets about 61 inches of rain a year.
The everyday stuff is cheap here in a way it isn’t 5 miles east. A full lunch on Kimberly Boulevard runs single digits, groceries come from a Publix or a Caribbean butcher rather than a specialty market, and the shopping plazas here run free surface lots rather than meters. That gap between housing cost and lifestyle cost is the actual argument for North Lauderdale over Coral Springs or Fort Lauderdale.
Where to Live in North Lauderdale, Neighborhood by Neighborhood
The city divides into six recognizable areas, and they differ more than 4.7 square miles suggests. Price climbs from the Boulevard of Champions townhomes up through the single-family blocks in the northwest. School zoning, commute direction and whether you want a yard will decide this for you faster than any listing photo.
Kimberly Village and North Lauderdale Estates: Yards and Walkable Parks
Kimberly Village and North Lauderdale Estates run along Kimberly Boulevard between Rock Island Road and US 441, and they hold most of the city’s single-family stock with spacious yards. Bicentennial Park at 6100 Kimberly Boulevard is walkable from most of it, which is the whole point of the area rather than a destination in itself. The Jack Brady Sports Complex and the Jerry Resnick Aquatic Center sit at the edge. If you want a pool 5 minutes away and ball fields within walking distance, start here.
The Boulevard of Champions Corridor: The Lowest Entry Price in the City
The Boulevard of Champions corridor is the curving spine Lapidus drew, running west from US 441 between McNab Road and Kimberly Boulevard. Housing is a mix of townhomes and single-family homes, and some of it backs onto water. This is where the lowest entry prices in North Lauderdale sit. The trade-off is townhome living and an association, so read the documents before you fall in love with a floor plan.
Silver Lakes and Tam O’Shanter: Zoning and a Fast Run Northwest
Silver Lakes and Tam O’Shanter occupy the northwest quadrant around Tam O’Shanter Boulevard and Southgate Boulevard, anchored by Silver Lakes Park at 7600 Tam O’Shanter Boulevard and Silver Lakes Middle School. The park is a neighborhood green space rather than an afternoon out, good for a walk with a dog and little else, and that suits the people who live around it. The area is quieter and more suburban than the 441 side, and it’s the shortest run to Coral Springs and the Sawgrass Expressway.
The McNab Road Spine: Where the City Actually Happens
McNab Road isn’t really residential. It’s the main street: Arena Shoppes at the corner of Rock Island Road, the Shoppes at Western Woods at 81st Avenue, Broward Meat and Fish, and a dense run of Caribbean, Latin and seafood kitchens in between. Living within a few blocks of it means you can do a grocery run, a school pickup and dinner without touching a highway. It also means traffic noise, so look at which way the bedrooms face.
The State Road 7 Corridor: Bus Access and the Shortest Drive East
The State Road 7 and US 441 corridor forms the eastern edge, shared with Lauderdale Lakes and Tamarac, and it carries most of the city’s apartment stock. Cypress Lakes Town Center anchors the grocery run on this side. Broward County Transit runs buses up and down 441, so this is the one part of North Lauderdale where a household can realistically manage with a single car. It’s also the shortest drive to the Turnpike, I-95 and downtown Fort Lauderdale.
Broadview and the Southwest Corner: Older, Quieter Streets
Broadview and the southwest corner sit around Broadview Elementary, backing onto Tamarac. The housing stock is older and the streets are quiet. Broadview Community Park shows as temporarily closed on its Google listing, so for now families here head to Bicentennial Park or Hampton Pines for green space. Commuters on this side reach the Turnpike a short drive east via Commercial Boulevard.
Schools and How Zoning Actually Works Here
North Lauderdale has no public high school inside its limits, and any honest moving guide has to lead with that. The Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance counts three elementary schools, two middle schools, six charter schools and zero public high schools in the city. Depending on the address, students are zoned to Coconut Creek, Boyd Anderson, Northeast or Piper high school.
Inside the city, public options include Broadview, Morrow and Pinewood elementary schools and Silver Lakes Middle School, and charter options include Somerset Preparatory Academy’s North Lauderdale campus (City of North Lauderdale school information). Verify the assignment for a specific address with Broward County Public Schools before you sign anything, because boundaries in this part of the county don’t follow city lines.
The city also has a track record with families worth knowing. America’s Promise Alliance named North Lauderdale one of its 100 Best Cities for Youth in 2012 and 2013, a recognition tied to the parks and youth programming rather than to test scores (City of North Lauderdale Parks and Recreation).
The Job Market and Getting Around
North Lauderdale’s unemployment rate was 3.4% in 2024, with a median age of 37 and 47.9% of residents holding some college or a degree, per the same Alliance profile. The largest employers based inside the city are Broward Meat and Fish, Bravo Supermarket, Publix, Home Depot, Walmart, Ross, Teleperformance and the City of North Lauderdale itself, which tells you the local economy is retail, food distribution, municipal work and one contact center.
Most working residents commute out. The Turnpike is a short drive east via Commercial Boulevard for Plantation, Sunrise and Miami-Dade. The Sawgrass Expressway to the west opens up Coral Springs and Parkland. Going east on Commercial Boulevard or Cypress Creek Road puts you on I-95 for downtown Fort Lauderdale in roughly 25 to 35 minutes, though the I-95 corridor is meaningfully slower at rush hour than any map estimate suggests. If you’d rather not drive into Miami or West Palm Beach, Tri-Rail’s nearest station is Cypress Creek (Tri-Rail), and Brightline stops in Fort Lauderdale.
Plan on two vehicles unless you’re living on the 441 corridor. The city is flat and its parks connect to sidewalks, but grocery, work and school trips here are car trips.
Climate, Hurricane Season and What Summer Really Feels Like
NOAA’s 1991 to 2020 climate normals for nearby Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport put the average annual high at 83.5°F and the low at 70.8°F, with about 61 inches of rain a year and no snow at all. Elevation is around 10 feet.
Hurricane season runs June 1 through November 30, peaking around September 10 with most activity from mid-August to mid-October (NOAA National Hurricane Center). Being inland cuts storm surge risk, but it does nothing about wind, rain or multiday power outages. What actually shapes daily life in the wet season, May through October, is less the rare direct hit and more the ordinary pattern: frequent afternoon thunderstorms, highs of 88 to 90°F from June through September, and outdoor plans that need to finish before 1 p.m.
The dry season, November through April, is the payoff. December runs 65 to 78°F with 2.8 inches of rain and January 61 to 76°F with 2.9 inches, and February and March are the driest months at 2.4 inches each. If you’re timing a move for comfort rather than for a lease date, aim for that window and check the best time to visit North Lauderdale for the month-by-month detail. Humidity is also the reason a lot of newcomers regret using a garage as long-term storage, and why climate-controlled storage is worth the difference for anything wooden, upholstered or paper.
Groceries, Furniture and the First Two Weeks
Broward Meat and Fish at 8040 W McNab Rd is the store that will orient you fastest. It’s a Caribbean and Latin grocery with a full butcher and fish counter carrying goat, oxtail, snapper, salted cod and provisions, plus the seasonings the local kitchens actually cook with. It’s also one of the city’s major employers. Weekend mornings get busy, so go on a weekday if you want to browse rather than wait in line.
For the ordinary weekly shop, the city runs on three plazas, two of them Publix-anchored. The Shoppes at Western Woods at 8140 W McNab Rd is the Publix for the western half of town. Cypress Lakes Town Center at 1297 S State Road 7 is the Publix on the eastern side. Arena Shoppes at McNab and Rock Island covers the discount end as a Ross-anchored center, and parking at all three is free surface parking.
Furnishing a place cheaply is easy if you know where to go, and the best cluster is on State Road 7 in Margate. WID Blooming Sales, the Women in Distress thrift store at 1372 N State Road 7, opens 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and its proceeds support domestic violence services. Goodwill Margate at 2057 N State Road 7 runs 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday, and the Salvation Army Thrift Store at 320 N State Road 7 opens from 10 a.m. Monday through Saturday. The North Lauderdale shopping guide covers the rest of the retail map. If your closing date and your move-out date don’t line up, a 10×10 storage unit holds a one-bedroom apartment’s worth of furniture in the gap, and a 5×10 unit holds the contents of one room, like the furnished bedroom a smaller apartment can’t absorb.
Sunday produce runs go to Veterans Memorial Park at 7825 Southgate Blvd, where the Tamarac Community Farmers Market sets up from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Admission is free and the market doesn’t take a summer break, so it’s an easy habit to build in your first month.
The Food Scene Is the Reason People Stay
North Lauderdale is unusually Caribbean even by Broward standards, and the census explains the restaurants. As of the 2000 Census the city had the ninth-highest share of Jamaican residents of any place in the United States at 11.47%, the 31st-highest Haitian share at 6.7% and the 38th-highest Trinidadian and Tobagonian share. Today 47.1% of residents were born outside the country, per the Alliance. That’s why a 4.7-square-mile suburb has Trinidadian, Jamaican, Haitian, Salvadoran, Mexican and Polish kitchens within a few blocks of each other.
Tabanka: a Trini Kitchen at 1645 S State Rd 7 is the one genuine destination restaurant inside the city limits, and it pulls a Broward-wide Trini crowd on weekends. Start with the doubles, then work through the curry chicken, curry goat and roti. It’s counter service with no pretension, closed Mondays and open from 8:30 a.m. on weekends. Le Goût Des Caraibes sits directly beside it at 1639 S State Rd 7, cooking Haitian griot and diri ak djon djon, and the two together make a one-stop Caribbean crawl.
The Dutch Pot Jamaican Restaurant at 6029 Kimberly Blvd opens at 7 a.m. seven days a week, which makes it the most reliable early breakfast in the city if ackee and saltfish is your idea of one. It stays open to 10 p.m. most nights and 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. For a cheap family dinner, La Brasa Grill at 7730 W McNab Rd sends out charcoal rotisserie chicken with yuca and plantains, and it keeps its kitchen going until 11 p.m. daily.
Two more are worth the detour. El Rinconcito Salvadoreño #1 at 8029 Kimberly Blvd makes pupusas to order with curtido on the side, which means a wait at peak lunch. Krakus Polish Deli at 7306 Southgate Blvd is half deli counter and half small market, selling kielbasa and pierogi, and it’s the single most surprising thing in a heavily Caribbean city. The North Lauderdale restaurant guide goes deeper, and weekend eaters should see the North Lauderdale brunch guide for the sit-down options in Tamarac and Coral Springs.
Parks, Recreation and the City Calendar
The city maintains 17 passive and active parks across more than 150 acres (City of North Lauderdale Parks and Recreation). Hampton Pines Park at 7800 Hampton Blvd is the best of them and the best free thing to do in the city. You can fish or paddle the lake, rent a paddleboat or a kayak for $3 per half hour, use either playground, play sand volleyball or walk the fitness trail, and seven pavilions around the lake rent out with grills and utility hookups, at $70 a day for up to 40 guests or $90 for 50 to 60 (city rental rates). Book a pavilion early for any weekend gathering, and remember that fishing needs a Florida license.
Families settling in tend to find the city pool first. At 701 SW 71st Avenue, the Jerry Resnick Aquatic Center has a junior Olympic-size pool and a water playground, heated in the cooler spring and fall months, though the city notes there are no water slides at this time. It’s open March through October and closed November through February, so put the dates in your phone. The Jack Brady Sports Complex shares the address, so a swim and a playground trip fold into one stop. City soccer, basketball, baseball and cricket leagues run out of the North Lauderdale Sports Complex on the same block. Cricket is genuinely rare in Broward and worth flagging to anyone relocating from the Caribbean or South Asia.
The city calendar is small and consistent. Hampton Pines Park hosts Haunted Hamptons from October 9 to 23, 2026, and the Sports Complex runs a Trunk or Treat Fall Festival on October 22 (city events). Each April the city scatters 11,000 filled plastic eggs for its egg hunt, and North Lauderdale Days brings a free festival with concerts, games and fireworks (City of North Lauderdale Parks and Recreation). For the wider regional list, the things to do in North Lauderdale guide covers the 10- and 30-minute rings.
What’s Walkable, What Needs a Car and What Closes
Very little in North Lauderdale is walkable in the way a newcomer from a northern city means it. Sidewalks run along McNab Road and Kimberly Boulevard, and the parks connect to their neighborhoods, but crossing US 441 on foot is unpleasant and the plazas are built for cars. The nearest genuinely walkable strips are the Promenade at Coconut Creek about 15 minutes north, an open-air loop of shops and restaurants with free parking, and Las Olas Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale about half an hour southeast.
Closing days and late hours matter more here than in a bigger city, because there aren’t many backups. Flanigan’s Seafood Bar and Grill at 5450 N State Road 7, on the city line with a Fort Lauderdale mailing address, is the late option, open until midnight Sunday through Thursday and 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday. La Brasa Grill runs to 11 p.m. daily. Taqueria Jovenazo at 7130 Kimberly Blvd stays open to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday but is closed Tuesdays, and Casa De Amore in Tamarac is closed Mondays.
Two more practicalities. There’s no golf course inside the city limits, and the closest is Colony West Golf Club at 6850 NW 88th Ave in Tamarac, 10 minutes west and public with two courses. And if you’re bringing a boat or an RV, read the deed restrictions before you sign, because driveway rules are what buyers discover after closing rather than before. Greater Fort Lauderdale carries roughly 300 miles of inland waterways (Visit Florida), so owning a boat is normal, and both boat storage and RV parking in North Lauderdale exist for the version of that problem an association creates.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is North Lauderdale a good place to live?
North Lauderdale suits people who want Broward County access at a lower housing cost and don’t need a downtown. You get 17 parks, three grocery and discount plazas, an excellent international food scene and a 25- to 35-minute drive to the beach. The honest trade-offs are no public high school in the city, almost nothing walkable, and a summer that keeps you indoors between 1 p.m. and evening.
What’s the cost of living in North Lauderdale?
Housing sets the number. Livability puts the median home value at $274,184 and median rent at $1,650 a month, with median property tax at $2,217. Florida has no state income tax, which helps. Budget separately for property insurance and for cooling a house from May through October, since those two items surprise most newcomers to South Florida.
What’s the average income in North Lauderdale?
The Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance reports a household median income of $63,423 from the 2023 American Community Survey five-year estimates, and Livability puts median income at $63,822. The two agree closely. Median age is 37, unemployment was 3.4% in 2024, and 47.9% of residents have some college or a degree.
Is it better to live in North or South Florida?
South Florida, including North Lauderdale, trades seasons for year-round warmth, and it costs more in housing and insurance than most of North Florida. You get no freeze, no snow, an international job market and beaches a half-hour drive east. You also get hurricane season from June through November and frequent summer thunderstorms. North Florida gives you cooler winters, cheaper housing and far less traffic.
What’s hurricane season in Fort Lauderdale?
Per the NOAA National Hurricane Center, the Atlantic season opens June 1 and closes November 30, peaking around September 10 with most activity from mid-August to mid-October. Roughly 10 feet of elevation and an inland location reduce storm surge risk for North Lauderdale, though wind, rain and power outages stay firmly on the list. Assemble a supply kit before June arrives, and read your homeowners or renters policy closely enough to know whether wind is covered separately.
Storage in North Lauderdale While You Get Settled
Value Store It runs two facilities in town, both month-to-month with no long-term contract, both open seven days a week, and both with individual door alarms on the units. Our North Lauderdale facility is the one with the widest size range. It starts with 5×5 lockers, about the size of a small closet, for boxes and holiday bins, and 10×5 spaces for the contents of one room. It steps up through 5×15 units that hold a studio apartment and 10×15 units that take a two-bedroom apartment, and tops out at 10×20 units for a three-bedroom home and the 10×30, the largest size in the city, for a four-bedroom home or a small business inventory.
The North Lauderdale II location covers the same ground with a vehicle option attached. Sizes there start at a 5×5 at the second site and run through 5×10 units there, a 10×5, 10×10 units at the second facility, a 10×15 space and the 10×20 there, with climate-controlled units at North Lauderdale II for anything the humidity would ruin and car storage for a second vehicle that won’t fit in the driveway. Truck rental and packing supplies are available at both.
If you’re still working out how much space a three-bedroom home actually needs, run the numbers with the storage unit size calculator and work through the moving checklist before your truck arrives. Reserve online, pick up the keys the day you land, and change the size later if the estimate was wrong.
