Trying to pick the right Hollywood, FL neighborhood? Between Miami and Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood offers beachside living, a walkable downtown, and leafy inland enclaves — often at better value than its bigger neighbors. “Best” depends on your budget and whether you want the beach, downtown walkability, or a quiet residential street.

Hollywood, FL neighborhoods to know

Hollywood Beach

Steps from the Broadwalk and sand — condos and beachside living with a relaxed vibe.

Downtown / Young Circle

Walkable, artsy, and full of dining and events — great for those who want an urban feel without the beach premium.

Hollywood Lakes & Emerald Hills

Leafy, established residential areas with larger homes, lakes and golf — popular with families.

How to choose your Hollywood neighborhood

Weigh your budget and your priority — beach access, downtown walkability, or quiet residential space — plus your commute to Miami or Fort Lauderdale. Then get the honest read from locals.

What Hollywood locals actually say

Which areas are worth the price, where the value is versus Miami, which spots fit your lifestyle — that comes from people who live here. On Neighborhood Nurturers’ Hollywood community, real neighbors give candid takes on where to live. See also things to do in Hollywood. Join your Hollywood neighbors free →

Where this fits in Hollywood

Every neighborhood here has a distinct feel, and the right fit depends on how you actually live. The picks in this guide make the most sense once you know how Hollywood is laid out. the Hollywood Beach Broadwalk and ArtsPark at Young Circle sit at the center of where locals actually spend their time, so planning finding the right neighborhood around one of them rarely goes wrong. When you want something calmer, North Beach Park pulls you away from the busiest blocks, and the historic downtown is the kind of spot regulars mention but visitors miss. Anchor your plan to one of those and the rest of the day in Hollywood tends to fall into place.

How Hollywood is laid out

Hollywood runs from the Atlantic westward across the Intracoastal Waterway and inland, sitting almost exactly midway between Miami and Fort Lauderdale – which is the single most useful fact about living here. It was an early master-planned community, and that shows in the street layout: wide boulevards, a downtown built around a circle, and a beach grid that is easy to navigate.

The broad pattern is simple. East of the Intracoastal is the beach and the Broadwalk – the most expensive and most visitor-facing. Around Young Circle is downtown, walkable and increasingly the centre of gravity for younger residents. West of Federal Highway and inland is where the residential neighbourhoods and the value are.

Hollywood Beach

The barrier-island strip along the 2.5-mile Broadwalk. A mix of older low-rise condo buildings, hotels and a small amount of single-family stock, with the promenade as a front garden. You are buying walkability to sand, ocean access and the constant hum of a tourist promenade – which is the trade-off. Older beachfront condo buildings frequently carry pet restrictions and association fees worth checking early. Our Broadwalk guide covers what living beside it is actually like.

Downtown Hollywood and Young Circle

Centred on Hollywood Boulevard, Harrison Street and ArtsPark at Young Circle – a 10-acre park inside a traffic circle. This is the walkable urban option: independent restaurants running from Cuban to Haitian, galleries, murals, bars and a genuine street life, with free films in the park on Friday evenings. Newer apartment stock concentrates here, and it is where most renters arriving without a fixed idea should start.

Hollywood Lakes

The historic and most sought-after residential neighbourhood, just south of downtown and east toward the Intracoastal. Older houses with genuine architectural character, mature tree canopy – which is a real amenity in this climate rather than an aesthetic one – and water views and canal frontage on many streets. This is the address people move up to within Hollywood.

Highland Gardens, Boulevard Heights and Driftwood

The inland residential neighbourhoods, and where the value is.

Highland Gardens sits adjacent to downtown, close enough to walk to ArtsPark – a good compromise between price and access. Boulevard Heights offers ranch-style homes with easy highway and bus access, a community centre, parks, and ★ a notable concentration of Latin American restaurants that makes it one of the better places in the city to eat. Driftwood has colourful ranch homes, many with pools, its own community centre, and a genuinely central position – roughly 30 minutes from Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood Beach alike.

Also worth knowing: Emerald Hills and Hillcrest for larger inland homes, and Town and Country, which grades A+ on safety with a crime index about 48% below the national average – see our safety guide.

Neighbourhoods that are actually separate cities

This catches people out constantly here, because Broward County is a patchwork. Dania Beach, Hallandale Beach, Pembroke Pines, Davie, Aventura and Fort Lauderdale are all separate municipalities with their own taxes, services and statistics – not Hollywood neighbourhoods, despite what listings imply. A “Hollywood” mailing address does not guarantee you are inside the City of Hollywood. Check the municipal boundary before you sign anything.

What housing costs

The headline is that Hollywood is the value play between Miami and Fort Lauderdale. The median home price sits around $487,500 to $500,000, with condos averaging roughly $305,000 and single-family homes around $550,000 – and homes taking about 95 days to sell, which gives buyers more room than the region’s reputation suggests.

On rent, the citywide average is about $2,267, breaking down to roughly $1,678 for a studio, $1,923 for a one-bedroom, $2,533 for a two-bedroom and $3,236 for a three-bedroom. For comparison, Fort Lauderdale averages around $2,816. The overall cost-of-living index here is 120 against Fort Lauderdale’s 130-132. Full detail in our cost of living guide.

How to choose

Walk to the beach: Hollywood Beach. Walk to bars and restaurants: Downtown or Highland Gardens. Character and trees: Hollywood Lakes. Space and value: Boulevard Heights, Driftwood, Emerald Hills. Commuting both directions: Driftwood or anywhere central, given the roughly 30-minute reach to both Miami and Fort Lauderdale.

Two pieces of local advice worth more than any list. Visit in August as well as January – tree canopy and shade matter enormously here, which is exactly why Hollywood Lakes holds its value. And check flood zone and insurance before you fall in love with a price; in a coastal city at low elevation, insurance can matter more to your monthly cost than the mortgage. Our moving guide covers it.

Living between two bigger cities

The defining fact of choosing Hollywood is that you are choosing the middle. Roughly half an hour north is Fort Lauderdale with its airport, its cruise port and its restaurant scene; roughly half an hour south is Miami with everything that implies. Hollywood gives you reach into both without paying either’s housing premium, and that is the whole proposition.

The trade-off is real and worth naming. You will drive more than you would in a genuinely urban neighbourhood of either city, because outside downtown and the beach strip Hollywood is a car place. Job density is lower here, so a significant share of residents commute out in one direction or the other, and doing that daily on Interstate 95 in season is nobody’s idea of a good time. Rail and rideshare take some of the edge off, but not all of it. The people who are happiest here tend to be those who either work locally, work remotely, or have deliberately traded a longer commute for a bigger home and a beach five minutes away – and for a lot of families that trade is exactly right.

More Hollywood guides

Hollywood rewards people who dig a little deeper. These related guides map the same neighborhoods from different starting points: Moving to Hollywood, Cost of living in Hollywood, Things to do in Hollywood — enough to plan a whole day or two.

Ask a Hollywood neighbor

The best tips never make the guidebooks — they come from neighbors who know which spot is worth it this week. That is what the Hollywood community on Neighborhood Nurturers is for. Ask Hollywood locals what they would do, or join free and get honest answers from people who actually know Hollywood.

Frequently asked questions

What are the best neighborhoods in Hollywood, FL?

Hollywood Beach for steps-from-the-sand living; Downtown/Young Circle for walkable, artsy urban life; and Hollywood Lakes and Emerald Hills for leafy, family-friendly homes.

Is Hollywood FL cheaper than Miami?

Often, yes — Hollywood frequently offers better value than Miami Beach and much of Miami-Dade, while keeping beach access and a lively downtown.

Is Hollywood FL a good place to live?

Many love it for the Broadwalk-and-beach lifestyle, the walkable downtown, and quieter inland neighborhoods, all between Miami and Fort Lauderdale.