Cost of Living in Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Housing: what things cost

Broward's market moves on the same currents as Miami-Dade's, just a notch cheaper per square foot. Here is the county picture and the city-specific numbers side by side.

Total Broward home sales actually dipped 4.5% year over year in August 2026, the first decline after eleven straight months of increases, which the trade data attributes to mortgage rates climbing back toward 7% and thin inventory at some price points. That is useful context if you are watching for negotiating room: it has started to open back up. The top out-of-state feeder markets for Broward driver-license exchanges in 2025 were New York, California and New Jersey, so if you are moving from one of those states you will have company.

By bedroom, RentCafe's late-August 2026 pull shows Fort Lauderdale renting a studio for $2,115, a one-bedroom for $2,454, a two-bedroom for $3,073 and a three-bedroom for $4,123, with an all-unit average of $2,861, up about 2.6% year over year. That average is actually a little higher than Miami's $2,773, even though buying per square foot is cheaper here, most likely because the two rental markets skew toward a different mix of unit sizes.

Taxes

Same state, same rules as the rest of Florida. Fort Lauderdale does not have its own income tax question to answer because there is no state income tax to begin with.

• State income tax: 0%. No brackets, no state return. Full breakdown and worked examples for New York, New Jersey and California movers on my Florida income tax page.
• Sales tax: 7% in Broward County (6% state rate plus a 1% county surtax).
• Property tax: Broward's effective rate is about 0.96% of home value, per the Tax Foundation's 2024 data, slightly above Miami-Dade's 0.81%. A homestead exemption of up to $50,000 comes off the assessed value of a primary residence, and once homesteaded the assessed value can rise at most 3% a year (2.9% for 2025, tied to CPI) under the Save Our Homes cap. A new buyer is taxed on the purchase price, not the seller's capped assessment, so never estimate your bill from the current listing sheet.
• Estate and inheritance tax: none in Florida.

Utilities, commute and getting around

Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International (FLL) and the Brightline station downtown are the two pieces of infrastructure that change how this city feels compared to a suburb further inland.

Airport and rail

FLL has direct service to the New York area (JFK, roughly 3h16m gate to gate on JetBlue and Delta, 40-plus weekly departures) as well as nonstops to Boston (around 3h10m) and Chicago (around 3h15m). Brightline's downtown Fort Lauderdale station gets you to Miami in about 38 minutes, roughly hourly departures, with one-way fares generally in the $18 to $45 range depending on class and time. Port Everglades, the cruise port here, set a record of nearly 4.8 million passengers in its fiscal 2025, the third-busiest cruise homeport in the world.

Commute and traffic

A neighborhood-level Fort Lauderdale commute figure was not something I could confirm from the Census data in this pass. At the metro level (Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach), the mean commute is 30.2 minutes, about 10% above the national average of 27.2 minutes. Driving from Fort Lauderdale down to Brickell in Miami runs roughly 34 to 35 minutes outside rush hour and can stretch to 60 to 90 minutes during the 4 to 7 PM window on I-95.

Electricity

Florida Power & Light's typical residential bill at 1,000 kWh is rising about $2.50 a month for 2026 under a rate settlement approved by state regulators in November 2025, from $134.14 to $136.64. FPL describes its rates as below the national average.

Schools

Fort Lauderdale sits in Broward County Public Schools, the district that serves the whole county, not a separate city district.

BCPS earned an A grade from the Florida Department of Education for the 2025/26 school year, its third year in a row earning an A. Across the district, 129 schools earned an A, 56 a B and 27 a C, and for the third consecutive year zero schools earned a D or an F. More than 60% of BCPS schools are A-rated. I was not able to confirm the full list of which specific schools carry the A by name for this page; if you want the grade on a school near a specific address, ask me and I will pull it.

Fort Lauderdale vs Miami

The honest version, in my words: Miami is louder, denser and moves faster, with more high-rise towers, more nightlife, and a bigger international crowd. Fort Lauderdale is calmer, more boat-and-dock oriented, and a lot of my clients who choose it want a single-family home with water access rather than a high floor with a view. Buying goes further per square foot here; renting does not, at least in this data set, so run your own numbers rather than assuming Fort Lauderdale is cheaper across the board.

Neighborhoods

These are the areas I take buyers through most often when Fort Lauderdale is the answer.

• Las Olas

  The walkable restaurant and boutique strip, with condos and townhomes close enough to walk to dinner. The most urban feel Fort Lauderdale offers.

• Victoria Park

  An in-town neighborhood just off Las Olas with a quieter, more residential feel and an easy walk or bike ride to downtown.

• Rio Vista

  Classic Fort Lauderdale waterfront: single-family homes on finger canals, many with a private dock, close to downtown and the beach.

• Harbor Beach

  A gated, waterfront enclave near the beach with larger lots and direct ocean access for boats, one of the pricier pockets of the city.

• Coral Ridge

  A family-oriented canal neighborhood north of downtown, closer to the beach, with a mix of updated and original single-family homes.

The honest part

Insurance and building codes

Broward County sits inside Florida's High-Velocity Hurricane Zone along with Miami-Dade, the strictest wind code in the country, with design wind speeds around 170 mph here. That code protects you, but it also means insurance underwriting is strict on roof age, impact glass and shutters. Statewide, the industry's average homeowners premium (2022, the latest finalized NAIC figure) was $2,677 a year, the highest in the country; more recent private estimates run well above that, though the rate of increase has slowed sharply, and Florida's state regulator has reported the average premium falling in most counties over its last two reporting periods. Get a quote on the specific property before you write an offer.

Condo rules after Surfside

Florida's post-2021 condo law applies here exactly as it does in Miami-Dade: buildings three stories and up face mandatory milestone structural inspections on an age-based schedule, and associations can no longer vote to underfund reserves for major structural components. Pull the milestone status and reserve study on any Fort Lauderdale condo before you fall for it.

Financing conditions right now

Broward's total home sales dipped 4.5% year over year in August 2026 as 30-year mortgage rates climbed toward 7%, and condo sales volume fell 9.3% even as the condo median price kept rising. That combination, rates up, some volume down, is worth knowing before you assume this is still a seller's market at every price point.

Live listings in Fort Lauderdale

Current MLS listings between $500,000 and $2,000,000 in Fort Lauderdale, Plantation and Hollywood, refreshed as you load this page.

Related guides

Sources

1. MIAMI REALTORS® + RWorld, "Broward County Total $1M+ Home Sales Rise Again," August 2026 monthly statistics, published September 16, 2026. miamirealtors.com.
2. U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts, Fort Lauderdale city, Florida (owner-occupied home value, gross rent, monthly owner cost, population). census.gov.
3. RentCafe, Average Rent Market Trends, Fort Lauderdale and Miami, FL, last updated August 31, 2026. rentcafe.com.
4. RentCafe Cost of Living Calculator, Fort Lauderdale, FL. rentcafe.com.
5. Tax Foundation, Property Taxes by State and County (2024 ACS data). taxfoundation.org.
6. Florida Department of Revenue, sales and use tax and discretionary surtax rates. floridarevenue.com.
7. Broward County Public Schools, "BCPS Earns 'A' Grade from the State for Third Consecutive Year," July 1, 2026. browardschools.com.
8. Florida Power & Light Newsroom, rate settlement press release, November 20, 2025. newsroom.fpl.com.
9. Port Everglades, 2026 cruise season announcement; Cruise Hive coverage of the FY2025 passenger record.
10. Redfin, Fort Lauderdale and Miami city housing-market pages, price per square foot, 2026.
11. FlightsFrom.com and TravelMath schedule aggregators for FLL nonstop times and weekly frequencies; Brightline fares as listed by fare aggregators (schedules and fares change, confirm on gobrightline.com before you travel).