Ringwood's housing stock reflects its history as a 1920s–1930s lake resort that gradually became a year-round community. Much of the inventory consists of detached single-family homes, many on generously sized, wooded lots, with a notable concentration of lakefront and lake-community properties around Cupsaw, Erskine, Skyline, and Riconda. Log cabins, ranch-style homes, and updated cottages coexist with larger contemporary construction, giving the borough a varied rather than uniform streetscape. Lakeside locations define the upper reaches of the market character, while inland homes offer more forested privacy. Buyers are generally drawn by space, water access, and a rural feel rather than by dense, walkable development, and the borough's small size and surrounding preserved parkland reinforce its established, low-density character.

Ringwood's residential pattern is organized around its four private lakes. Cupsaw Lake is the best-known, with a distinct lake community centered on its namesake body of water; Erskine, Skyline, and Riconda offer similar lakefront living on a smaller scale. Away from the lakes, homes spread along wooded roads and ridgelines throughout the borough, including areas near Ringwood State Park and the border with Wanaque. Because the borough was assembled around these man-made lakes, neighborhood identity often tracks which lake a street borders rather than formal subdivisions. The result is a community of loosely defined but strongly local pockets, unified by shared schools, the state park, and a common rural-suburban character.

Daily life in Ringwood revolves around the outdoors. Residents use the lakes for swimming, kayaking, and fishing in warm months and lean on Ringwood State Park and the surrounding Ramapo Mountain trails for year-round hiking. The borough has a deliberately low-key, uncommercialized feel; errands and dining often spill into neighboring Wanaque, Oakland, or the Route 287 corridor. Community life is anchored by the schools, the lake associations, and programs at Ringwood Manor and the state park rather than a busy downtown. For many, the appeal is the combination of lake access, forested privacy, and the quiet pace of a borough that feels farther from New York City than its 40-mile distance suggests.

Ringwood students are served by the Ringwood Public School District for grades K–8. The district operates Robert Erskine School and Peter Cooper School for grades K–3, E. G. Hewitt Intermediate School for grades 4–5, and Martin J. Ryerson Middle School for grades 6–8. For high school, students attend Lakeland Regional High School in Wanaque, a four-year regional school shared with the neighboring Borough of Wanaque, including its Haskell section. The two-district arrangement means families should confirm school assignments by address, particularly at the transition to ninth grade. Both districts are part of the broader Passaic County public school landscape.

Ringwood sits roughly 40 miles northwest of Manhattan, and commuting is largely car-based along regional highways; the borough itself has no rail station, and most residents drive to reach the Route 287 corridor and connecting routes into northern New Jersey and New York. The drive to Manhattan is an established commuting pattern, with some households historically maintaining a mix of year-round and weekend homes. For air travel and longer-distance transit, residents rely on the broader New York metropolitan region's airports and rail network rather than in-borough facilities. Within the borough, travel is oriented around its winding, wooded roads and the four lake communities.

Ringwood State Park is the borough's defining recreation asset. Within its grounds, Ringwood Manor preserves a 51-room ironmaster's estate with period gardens and museum collections set on 582 acres. The park and adjacent preserved lands offer hiking, picnicking, and seasonal programs, and connect to the broader trail systems of the Ramapo Mountains. The borough's four private lakes — Cupsaw, Erskine, Skyline, and Riconda — provide boating, swimming, and fishing for residents and lake-community members. Between the state park, the lakes, and the surrounding highlands, Ringwood offers an unusually direct link between home and preserved open space for a borough within commuting reach of New York City.