Waterfront guides
Know the water before you buy on it
Every waterway here behaves differently. These guides walk each one the way I would walk it with you in person, including the parts that are not flattering.
Each guide separates what is confirmed from what still has to be checked on your specific address. Where a figure is not verified, you will see a marker saying so rather than a number I made comfortable.
Fort Lauderdale
They call it the Venice of America for a reason. Fort Lauderdale is built around a canal network that reaches deep into the city from the Intracoastal, and the New River runs right through the middle of downtown. It is the largest and busiest of the three markets I work, with the widest range of everything: the most marinas, the most dining on the water, and the most bridges to think about.
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East Pompano Beach
East Pompano is the east side of the city: the Intracoastal, Lake Santa Barbara, and the finger canals that feed into them. It has a quieter, more residential feel than Fort Lauderdale while still putting you a short run from an ocean inlet. It also has the strongest wreck-diving identity of the three markets I work, which is a large part of why I ended up spending so much of my own time in this water.
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Lighthouse Point
Lighthouse Point is a finger-canal town, and it was more or less designed around boats. It is small, almost entirely residential, and sits just south of Hillsboro Inlet, which is the shortest ocean run of the three markets I work. There is no municipal ocean beach here. What there is instead is canal frontage, and a lot of it.
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Coral Ridge
Coral Ridge is one of the older, more established waterfront neighborhoods in northeast Fort Lauderdale, and it looks the part. Wide lots, mature trees, quiet streets, and canals that either feed the Intracoastal or the Middle River depending on which side of the neighborhood you are on. It sits between two country clubs and a yacht club, and it has the kind of settled feel that newer waterfront developments cannot fake.
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Lauderdale-by-the-Sea
LBTS is small, walkable, and built around the beach in a way most South Florida towns are not anymore. It sits on a narrow strip between the Atlantic and the Intracoastal, and it calls itself Florida's Beach Diving Capital, which is not just a slogan. There are living coral reefs close enough to shore that you can snorkel to them from the sand. That is genuinely rare on this coast, and it is a big part of why I spend time in this water myself.
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Sea Ranch Lakes
Sea Ranch Lakes is small enough that most people driving down A1A do not realize it is its own village. It is gated, it has its own police department, and it sits entirely surrounded by Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, running from the Intracoastal on one side to the ocean on the other, with two private lakes at the center. There are only a couple hundred homes here, which is exactly the point for the people who choose it.
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Hillsboro Beach
Hillsboro Beach is a narrow strip of a town, barely wider than a few hundred feet in places, running along A1A between the ocean and the Intracoastal. Locals call it Millionaire's Mile for a reason. It is almost entirely residential, mostly oceanfront estates and Intracoastal condos, and it sits right at the mouth of Hillsboro Inlet, with the historic lighthouse marking the southern end of town.
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Las Olas Isles
The finger islands off Las Olas Boulevard were dredged out in the 1920s using the same technique that built Venice's canals, and almost a century later they are still one of the most prestigious waterfront addresses in Fort Lauderdale. Private docks, walkable access to Las Olas restaurants and shopping, and canal frontage on nearly every lot. It is a genuinely beautiful place to keep a boat.
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Rio Vista
Rio Vista is one of the oldest platted neighborhoods in Fort Lauderdale, and it carries that history well. Mature oak canopies, Mediterranean revival architecture, and canals that were dredged out nearly a century ago and still deliver some of the most direct ocean access in the city. It sits just south of downtown and Las Olas, bordered by the New River and the Intracoastal.
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Harbor Beach is a guard gated, mostly waterfront enclave sitting right next to Port Everglades Inlet, and it is where a lot of the region's largest privately owned yachts actually live. Deep, wide canals, a private beach club, and twenty four hour security. If your boat is part of the reason you are searching for a home, this is one of the most serious waterfront addresses in Fort Lauderdale for exactly that reason.
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Not sure which waterway fits your boat?
Tell me the air draft and the draft and I will tell you which of these actually works for you.