Everything else equal, we can all agree that living in a cheaper place is better than living in a more expensive place.
I’d much rather pay $500/mo in rent than $1,000. And I’d rather pay $2 for coffee than $5.
And while every neighborhood in Fort Lauderdale might be more expensive than living in rural Florida, there are certain neighborhoods that are definitely cheaper.
What exactly are those Fort Lauderdale neighborhoods where your dollar goes a little further — you can get that one bedroom instead of the studio?
Instead of relying on public opinion and speculation, we wanted to get the facts straight and determine which neighborhoods in Fort Lauderdale are the cheapest using Saturday Night Science.
97 cost of living index
107 cost of living index
125 cost of living index
105 cost of living index
113 cost of living index
112 cost of living index
114 cost of living index
119 cost of living index
129 cost of living index
113 cost of living index
The receipts
Compare the top ten
Pick a metric. The bars rescale. The red line is Florida’s statewide median.
Saturday Night Science
Methodology: How we determined the cheapest Fort Lauderdale hoods in 2026
To rank the cheapest places to live in Fort Lauderdale, we had to determine what criteria define “cheap” and then apply Saturday Night Science.
Using Census and extrapolated BLS data, we arrived at the following set of criteria:
- Overall Cost Of Living
- Rent To Income Ratio
- Median Home Value To Income Ratio
We then ranked each neighborhood with scores from 1 to 62 in each category, where 1 was the cheapest.
Next, we averaged the rankings for each neighborhood to create a cheap neighborhood index.
And finally, we crowned the neighborhood with the lowest cheapest neighborhood index, the “Cheapest City Neighborhood In Fort Lauderdale.” We’re lookin’ at you, Palm-Aire Village.
We updated this article for 2026. Skip to the end to see the list of all the neighborhoods in the city, from cheapest to most expensive.
The full plate
Detailed list of the cheapest neighborhoods to live in Fort Lauderdale for 2026
Click any column to sort. Search by neighborhood name.
| Rank | Neighborhood | Cost Of Living Index |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Palm-Aire Village | 97 |
| 2 | Sunset | 107 |
| 3 | River Run | 125 |
| 4 | Lauderdale West | 105 |
| 5 | Flamingo Park | 113 |
| 6 | Melrose Manors | 112 |
| 7 | Edgewood | 114 |
| 8 | Croissant Park | 119 |
| 9 | Lauderdale Beach | 129 |
| 10 | Bermuda Riviera | 113 |
| 11 | Central Beach Alliance | 132 |
| 12 | Beverly Heights | 145 |
| 12 | Colee Hammock | 145 |
| 14 | Harbor Beach | 164 |
| 15 | Seven Isles | 154 |
| 16 | Dorsey-Riverbend | 98 |
| 17 | Downtown | 134 |
| 17 | Imperial Point | 130 |
| 19 | Dillard Park | 104 |
| 20 | Poinsettia Heights | 134 |
| 20 | Flagler Heights | 122 |
| 22 | Lauderdale Manors | 107 |
| 23 | Coral Ridge Country Club | 151 |
| 24 | Bay Colony | 112 |
| 24 | Bay Colony Club | 112 |
| 26 | Boulevard Park Isles | 129 |
| 27 | Lake Aire Palm View | 106 |
| 28 | City View Townhome | 117 |
| 29 | Poinciana Park | 119 |
| 29 | South Middle River | 114 |
| 31 | Tarpon River | 132 |
| 32 | Rio Vista | 191 |
| 33 | Lake Ridge | 130 |
| 34 | Sunrise Intracoastal | 176 |
| 35 | Sailboat Bend | 136 |
| 36 | Progresso Village | 116 |
| 37 | River Oaks | 136 |
| 38 | Durrs Homeowners | 105 |
| 39 | Galt Mile | 137 |
| 40 | Coral Ridge | 170 |
| 41 | Riviera Isles | 209 |
| 41 | Idlewyld | 209 |
| 41 | Las Olas Isles | 209 |
| 44 | Middle River Terrace | 127 |
| 44 | Coral Ridge Isles | 132 |
| 46 | Harbour Inlet | 164 |
| 46 | Harbour Isles | 164 |
| 48 | Landings | 134 |
| 48 | Home Beautiful Park | 107 |
| 50 | Knoll Ridge | 130 |
| 51 | Victoria Park | 161 |
| 52 | North Golf Estates | 156 |
| 52 | Lake Estates | 156 |
| 54 | Harbordale | 152 |
| 54 | Nurmi Isles | 276 |
| 56 | Birch Park | 164 |
| 57 | Riverside Park | 128 |
| 58 | Coral Shores | 146 |
| 59 | Lauderdale Harbours | 202 |
| 60 | Hendricks And Venice Isles | 276 |
| 60 | Navarrea Isle | 276 |
| 60 | Sunrise Key | 141 |
Source: U.S. Census ACS 2020-2024. All 62 Fort Lauderdale neighborhoods.
Summary
Summary: Lowest cost places to live in Fort Lauderdale
If you’re measuring the neighborhoods in Fort Lauderdale where prices are low, and it’s cheap to live, this is an accurate list.
The most affordable neighborhoods in Fort Lauderdale are Palm-Aire Village, Sunset, River Run, Lauderdale West, Flamingo Park, Melrose Manors, Edgewood, Croissant Park, Lauderdale Beach, and Bermuda Riviera.
As mentioned earlier, the neighborhoods in Fort Lauderdale aren’t all cheap. Sunrise Key takes the title of the most expensive neighborhood to live in Fort Lauderdale.
We ranked the neighborhoods from cheapest to most expensive in the chart below. Not sold on Florida? Take the two-minute Find Your Place quiz and see which state actually fits you.
Questions and answers
Cheapest Neighborhoods In Fort Lauderdale FAQs
What is the cheapest neighborhood in Fort Lauderdale?
Palm-Aire Village is the cheapest neighborhood in Fort Lauderdale for 2026. It posts the best combination of overall cost of living, rent against income, and home prices against income. Sunset and River Run are next.
What are the cheapest neighborhoods in Fort Lauderdale?
The cheapest neighborhoods in Fort Lauderdale are Palm-Aire Village, Sunset, River Run, Lauderdale West, Flamingo Park, Melrose Manors, Edgewood, Croissant Park, Lauderdale Beach, and Bermuda Riviera. We ranked all 62 neighborhoods in the city.
How do you decide which neighborhoods are cheapest?
Three measures: an overall cost of living index, rent-to-income, and home-value-to-income, all from Census tract data. Scoring costs against local incomes keeps one luxury tower from skewing the math.
Is a cheap neighborhood a bad neighborhood?
Not necessarily — this ranking measures what things cost relative to income, nothing else. Check our safest neighborhoods in Fort Lauderdale ranking before you sign a lease, because cheap and safe are separate questions.
What is the most expensive neighborhood in Fort Lauderdale?
Sunrise Key lands at the expensive end of the 62 neighborhoods we scored. If your budget disagrees with it, the rest of the list runs cheaper.
