The 10 Best Fort Lauderdale Suburbs To Live In For 2026

The 10 Best Fort Lauderdale Suburbs To Live For 2026

Highland Beach is always mentioned as one of the best suburbs in the Fort Lauderdale area. We’ll tell you the good about “Awesome Highland Beach.”

Everyone here is rich; families average $145,485 a year, which is the 3rd highest in the Fort Lauderdale region. And only 3.53% are out of work. Homes average more than $887,062 each.

Parkland is the second best ‘burb we looked at near Fort Lauderdale for 2026.

It ranks 1st for incomes in the area and only 4.5% of residents lack insurance, good for 5th best.

Here in Bay Harbor Islands, it’s really safe, and residents are just about as rich as you’ll see in the Fort Lauderdale metro area.

The bad side? Schools are more crowded, and the cost of living puts a large part of the city out of reach for most families.

But price is based on demand and a lot of people want to live in Bay Harbor Islands.

Lauderdale-by-the-Sea ranks as the 4th best suburb of Fort Lauderdale for 2026.

You won’t find many better places to raise your kids in the region than in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea and the schools are some of the best around.

Coming in as the fifth best is Southwest Ranches.

Southwest Ranches gets kudos for having the 2nd most expensive homes in the Fort Lauderdale area, where houses sell for an average of $1,437,706. However, the cost of living here is among the highest in the area.

Surfside is proud of its 6th place finish on this list. And here’s why.

Most residents have great jobs and the unemployment rate sits at 5.21%.

According to online reports, Surfside is quickly becoming one of the more affluent suburbs in the Fort Lauderdale area, meaning you need to get in soon.

The 7th best suburb on our list goes to Miami Lakes.

Miami Lakes schools are some of the best in the region, and crime is really low. The cost of living makes it a lot more desirable for many families, especially first-time home buyers.

And, it’s only 19.1 miles to downtown, which is a good thing.

Review Of Miami Lakes by HomeSnacks User

I love how Miami lakes is so beautiful and safe also very quiet. They have many markets and places to eat they are a nice people also in Miami lakes.

The area is very good and the people are friendly.

Weston is growing quickly, and for a good reason. Crime is far below average, and most residents are gainfully employed. Even the cost of living is reasonable.

A solid 5.58% of people lack insurance, good for 7th in the area.

Review Of Weston by HomeSnacks User

Weston is very safe very quiet place to live. All of the neighborhoods’ associations are strict and keep the communities looking very nice. The schools are good but are overflowing. They used to be great but not anymore. There is a large Venezuelan community that started moving here in the last 10 years. It’s almost not necessary to speak English here. There are a lot of restaurants to choose from and businesses. A lot of small parks for kids to play in, activities for kids and also a large dog park at Markham Park. Highways are extremely accessible from both sides of the city and we’re 10 minutes away from Sawgrass Mills. City buses and 18 wheelers are not allowed through the city so it’s very quiet. Weston has a lot of restrictions but that’s what keeps the city very safe and clean. There is also a large regional park and the YMCA and community center are both inside the park. We have an athletic club and tons of karate schools, music schools, gyms, learning centers etc. Cleaveland Clinic is also here and plenty of spas and doctors offices. All in all it is a very family friendly city and they have done a great job in making sure you don’t need to leave Weston, we have everything here.

Schools are very overcrowded because there are so many people who want to live here. Cypress Bay High School is a very good school but it’s huge. There are two middle schools Falcon Cove and Tequesta Trace and five elementary schools. There are also private schools, Sagemont and Weston Christian Academy and plenty of pre-schools.

Is ‘Everything Better In Lighthouse Point?’

Almost.

It placed 9th on our list thanks to the fact that it’s really expensive to live here, but the schools are great, so you get what you pay for in that regard.

And rounding out the top ten for 2026 is Miami Shores.

This city is far above average in every category, and the best part? It’s far more affordable than the other cities listed above. So, you get a big bang for your buck here.

Methodology: How We Determined The Best Suburbs Around Fort Lauderdale for 2026

Figuring out the best suburbs around Fort Lauderdale was simple. We used Saturday Night Science to find things people like about living in the suburbs and then locate the suburbs with those things.

We analyzed the newest American Community Survey data for 2020-2024 to research each suburb. We decided upon the following criteria:

• Low unemployment rate
• High median household incomes
• Population density (lots of things to do)
• High home values
• A lot of college-educated people
• Low poverty
• High rate of insured families

We defined a suburb as being within 30 miles of Fort Lauderdale.

Additionally, we limited the analysis to places that have over 2,000 people. This left us with a grand total of 53 suburbs to evaluate around Fort Lauderdale.

We ranked each place with scores from 1 to 53 in each category, where 1 was the “best.

Next, we averaged the rankings for each place to create a quality-of-life index.

Finally, we crowned the city with the best quality of life index, the “Best Suburb near Fort Lauderdale.” We’re lookin’ at you, Highland Beach.

This result may differ from our state-wide data as we did not include commute times and crime for this analysis to allow for a more extensive selection of suburbs.

We updated the data for 2026. This report is our eleventh time ranking the best Fort Lauderdale suburbs. Skip to the end to see the list of all the suburbs ranked from best to worst.