Best Neighborhoods in Royal Palm Beach, Florida

Stand at the corner of Okeechobee and Royal Palm Beach Boulevards and you are at the center of the Village. Drive ten minutes in one direction and you are on streets named for birds, in a neighborhood the county's records show was being built in the early 1970s. Drive ten minutes the other way and you are at the north end of Crestwood Boulevard, at a gated community that did not have a first resident until December 2018.

That range is the real story of Royal Palm Beach. It is a more attainable corner of Palm Beach County for buyers who want a house, usable space and parks, and it offers those things in several quite different packages. This guide is organized around the places themselves, not around decades, because the decision you are actually making is which of these communities fits the way you live.

Established central communities: The Willows, La Mancha, Counterpoint Estates

These are the neighborhoods that make Royal Palm Beach feel like a place with a history. The Village was incorporated in 1959, and the county's parcel records show homes in The Willows from the early 1970s and in La Mancha and Counterpoint Estates from the mid-1970s through the early 1990s.

The Willows

The Willows is the Village's middle. It sits around Royal Palm Beach and Okeechobee Boulevards, and its streets are named for birds: Heron Parkway, Swan Parkway, Sandpiper Avenue, Meadowlark Drive. The Village's civic cluster, Village Hall, Veterans Park and the Saturday Green Market, is close enough that a trip to any of them is a short one. Bobbie Jo Lauter Park is on Sandpiper Avenue and Lindsay Ewing Park, home of the Village's cricket fields, is on Linnet Lane.

Start here if you want to be central, near the Village's own facilities, in an established neighborhood. Skip this if you want newer construction. A neighborhood this age is a conversation about roofs, windows, plumbing and electrical, and a licensed inspector answers that, not the build year.

La Mancha

La Mancha is north of Okeechobee Boulevard and is built around La Mancha Avenue. Its streets carry Spanish city names, Valencia, Seville, Granada, Madrid, Toledo, and it was platted in three sections. Todd A. Robiner Park, at 350 La Mancha Avenue, has a Bark Park, a fishing dock, a basketball court and picnic pavilions, so a park is a walk away for a large part of it.

Start here if you want an established neighborhood with a park in it. Skip this if you expect to walk to restaurants or shops. Like every part of the Village, daily errands are drives.

Counterpoint Estates

Counterpoint is the Village's operetta neighborhood, with Pinafore Lane, Mikado Lane, Showboat Lane and Penzance Lane, platted across fourteen separate plats between 1977 and 1993. It sits in the south-central part of the Village between Southern and Okeechobee. Penzance Park is on Penzance Lane, and Homeplace Park, on Grandview Circle, has a canoe and kayak launch, a fishing dock, a dog park and picnic pavilions.

Start here if you want an established grid with water access close by. Skip this if you want to see a shopping center from your front door.

The Crestwood Boulevard corridor

Crestwood Boulevard runs north from Southern Boulevard along the Village's west side. It is how you reach several communities that have little in common except the road. Treat each as its own place.

Crestwood, Units 1 to 4

The long-standing Crestwood neighborhood sits along the middle stretch of the boulevard, between the Southern and Okeechobee ends. Its streets have English names, Cambridge, Nottingham, Kings Way, and a cluster named for painters, Van Gogh Way and Picasso Court. County records show homes from the early 1980s into the 2000s. Crestwood Park North, at 900 Crestwood Boulevard North, has a fishing dock, tennis, a volleyball court and a pavilion.

Start here if you want Crestwood's location in an established neighborhood. Skip this if you are sensitive to boulevard traffic.

Madison Green and Saratoga at Royal Palm

Madison Green is the Crestwood corridor's planned community, centered on the Okeechobee, Crestwood and Saratoga Boulevard area on the Village's west side. County records put its homes in the early 2000s. Madison Green Country Club, at 2001 Crestwood Boulevard North, describes itself as open to the public.

Saratoga at Royal Palm is next door, around Saratoga Boulevard, with horse-racing street names, Lexington Drive, Churchill Drive, Pimlico Way, Derby Lane. It was platted in five sections, with homes from the late 1980s into the early 2000s. It is a quieter, mid-era pocket on the west side.

Start here if golf is part of your plan, or you want the Crestwood side of the Village. Skip this if you want to be close to the Village center.

BellaSera

BellaSera is the corridor's newest community, at 980 Crestwood Boulevard North. It is Lennar's marketing name for the plat the county and the MLS call Crestwood North, so a listing may carry either name, and they are the same place. The Village's planning records show 385 single-family units on 154 acres, with a clubhouse and recreation pod, and Lennar announced it in 2018 as a gated, master-planned community. The site was a Village wastewater plant before it was a neighborhood.

Start here if you want the newest construction in the Village in a gated setting. Skip this if you want to be central. It is the farthest community from the Village's civic core.

Planned and amenity-oriented communities

Beyond BellaSera, the Village's 2000s and 2010s planned communities were each built as a single, named development, and they reward the same test: look at the entrance, the streets and the amenities of each one yourself and compare.

PortoSol

PortoSol is about 500 single-family homes, built from roughly 2008 to 2015, on the Village's east side just north of Okeechobee Boulevard and close to State Road 7. Minto Communities is its developer. If you want a newer planned community and the Village's State Road 7 retail within a short drive, it belongs on your list.

Anthony Groves, known as Victoria Grove

You will see Victoria Grove Boulevard on the map and "Victoria Groves" in listings. The recorded plat is Anthony Groves, along Southern Boulevard in the southeast part of the Village, with homes from 2002 to 2005. The same part of the Village has Shoma-built townhome and villa plats, if you are weighing attached housing.

Bella Terra

Bella Terra is a 2000s planned community in the southeast, around Venice Boulevard and Tuscany Drive, with Italian street names. It is a good one to compare against Anthony Groves because the two are close and similar in age.

Newer pockets worth knowing

Palm Beach Colony, the Village's original development, is at the south end of Royal Palm Beach Boulevard with flower-named streets. Seminole Estates, near Camellia Park, dates from the early 2000s. Lakeside Landing, just north of Okeechobee Boulevard, is brand-new construction.

How to choose

• Want the established center of town: start with The Willows and La Mancha.
• Want an established street grid with water access: Counterpoint Estates.
• Want golf next door: Madison Green.
• Want newest and gated: BellaSera.
• Want a 2000s planned community near State Road 7: PortoSol.
• Want attached housing: the Shoma townhome and villa plats near Southern Boulevard, and the condominium communities along Crestwood Boulevard.

Whichever community you choose, drive it on a Tuesday and again on a Saturday, and walk to the nearest park. The park is the most reliable local amenity in the Village, and its distance from your front door tells you more than any listing.

For how these communities compare with Wellington, The Acreage and Westlake, see Royal Palm Beach versus nearby cities. For whether the Village suits the way you live, read who should move to Royal Palm Beach, and for what owning here costs, see the cost of living guide.