Riverdale's housing stock is predominantly single-family, reflecting its mid-20th-century growth as a Morris County suburb, with some attached and multi-family options clustered near the Route 23 commercial corridor. Homes range from older capes, colonials, and ranches on modest lots to newer construction in established neighborhoods. Because the borough is small and largely built out, turnover is steady rather than characterized by large-scale new development. The housing market's defining feature is location: buyers in Riverdale are typically drawn by the combination of a compact footprint and immediate access to Route 23 shopping and the Interstate 287 interchange, rather than by lot size or new subdivisions.

Life in Riverdale is shaped by convenience and a small-town civic identity. Residents have national retail, grocery, and everyday services within the borough along Route 23, reducing trips for routine errands, while the borough's own government, school, and public facilities keep civic life local. The surrounding Morris County landscape offers access to nearby parks and the highlands of northern New Jersey within a short drive. Riverdale attracts a mix of longtime residents and newer arrivals seeking an efficient, well-situated community rather than a large-town atmosphere. Its compact size means neighbors tend to know one another, and the school and local organizations remain central to community life.

Riverdale operates its own public school district. Riverdale Public School, located on the Newark-Pompton Turnpike, enrolls students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade in a single building. For grades nine through twelve, Riverdale maintains a sending relationship with the Pompton Lakes School District, and high school students attend Pompton Lakes High School. The small-district structure keeps elementary and middle school education close to home while giving older students access to a larger regional high school. Riverdale's K-8 building is modest in size, supporting a tight-knit, neighborhood-based educational experience.

Riverdale is a genuine highway crossroads. New Jersey Route 23 runs north-south through the borough as a major commercial artery, and Interstate 287 passes along its northern edge with an interchange (Exit 52A/53) serving Riverdale, Wayne, and Butler. Together these routes connect the borough to Routes 46 and 80 and other corridors of the northern New Jersey highway network, giving commuters multiple options toward employment centers in Morris, Passaic, and Bergen counties. Local roads including the Newark-Pompton Turnpike and Paterson-Hamburg Turnpike provide secondary access, and the borough's location keeps most regional destinations within a short drive.