Distant surrounding communities include Yucca Valley which lies 45 miles (72 km) east via State Route 247/Old Woman Springs Road, and Barstow, which is 26 miles (42 km) north via State Route 247/Barstow Road.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP covers an area of 105.6 square miles (273.5 km2), all of it land.

There were 2,949 housing units at an average density of 27.9 per square mile (10.8/km2), of which 1,454 (66.8%) were owner-occupied, and 722 (33.2%) were occupied by renters.

According to the 2010 United States Census, Lucerne Valley had a median household income of $30,142, with 18.4% of the population living below the federal poverty line.

Industrial zoning is predominantly in the southern border of the community on the north-facing slopes of the San Bernardino Mountains.

[11] The commercial zoning corridor is primarily on State Route 18, with outlying businesses within a mile of the eastern half of the Old Woman Springs/Barstow Road junction.

Traditional retail construction has been restrained in the latter half of the 20th century to keep the rural character of the town intact,[11] but in September 2015 a Dollar General store[12] opened as the first franchise grocery retail to enter town limits.

[11] An attempt to construct a golf course and install utilities for residential/commercial zones called "Rancho Lucerne"[13] began grading north of the high school site before embezzlement charges filed against the financier caused the project to shut down in 2001, leaving the site abandoned and desert habitat destroyed.

In 2012, LADWP cancelled an attempt to install a two mile wide water and power corridor in the southern half of the town.

The same fire station serves as the CSA 29 field office, which operates a parks and recreation department to maintain the town parks, county facilities including a community center, senior center, the county library, an ATSC TV translator tower, and a public cemetery.

California Highway Patrol provides traffic enforcement and investigation from the Victorville office.

[20] The dry lakes and mountainous terrain surrounding the town have been used in television, film, and photography, including movies such as Stagecoach (1939), Tarantula, and The Hills Have Eyes (1977).

[21] On September 24–25, 2016, The Grand Tour on Amazon Prime shot an episode at Rabbit Dry Lake outside Lucerne Valley town limits.