Butler's housing reflects its industrial-village origins and its geography. The stock is predominantly older single-family homes on modest lots, with a range of early-20th-century styles, Cape Cods, and split-levels, plus some multi-family units near the downtown and along the main roads. Because the borough is small and largely built out, inventory is limited and homes tend to be closer together than in the lake communities and exurban townships to the west. Buyers are drawn by the walkable downtown, the public school system, and the relative value compared with points farther east toward New York.

Life in Butler centers on its compact downtown, where Main Street's storefronts, restaurants, and seasonal events give the borough a genuine small-town rhythm. The borough's history as a company town lingers in its civic pride and its museums and historical society, which preserve the rubber-industry story. Residents make heavy use of Silas Condict County Park for hiking, fishing, and picnicking, and nearby Kinnelon and Riverdale add shopping and services. The Highlands setting, with its lakes, reservoirs, and forests, frames a lifestyle oriented to the outdoors within commuting distance of the New York metro.

Public education in Butler is provided by the Butler Public School District, a compact K–12 system that includes Aaron Decker School, Richard Butler Middle School, and Butler High School. The district's small size is a point of local identity, giving families a single, close-knit pathway from kindergarten through high school. Students also have access to private and parochial schools in surrounding Morris and Passaic county communities, as well as the county vocational-technical school system.

Butler is well connected for a borough of its size. NJ Transit's Butler station on the Montclair-Boonton Line provides direct commuter rail service toward Hoboken and New York, anchoring the borough's appeal for Manhattan-bound commuters. Route 23 runs along the borough's edge, linking Butler to Interstate 80 and Route 287 and the broader North Jersey road network. Freight rail still passes through town, a reminder of its railroad origins. The borough is roughly thirty miles from New York City and within reach of Newark and Morristown.

Silas Condict County Park, a large Morris County park on Butler's edge, is the centerpiece of local outdoor life, with miles of hiking trails, a scenic overlook, fishing, boating, horseback riding, and cross-country skiing across its forested Highlands terrain. Trout Brook, a tributary of the Pequannock River, runs through the park. The Pequannock River itself offers fishing, and the surrounding Highlands and nearby lakes add paddling and swimming within a short drive.