The short answer is that, from a Norse perspective, colonization wasn't worth it. They did some exploring and perhaps a bit of resource extraction (most likely wood), but there's no evidence—textual or archaeological—that they ever attempted a permanent settlement. It was a long trip from Greenland, they'd already learned to get almost everything they needed locally, and they were too far removed from major trade centers for profit to motivate them toward further resource exploitation.

With that in mind, it's worth noting that two common explanations—that the Norse couldn't hack it, or that Native Americans drove them out—just don't make sense. The Norse survived and thrived in Greenland for 500 years, so chances are they could've hacked it if they tried. And while the sagas do attest to some violence with Native Americans, they don't at all say that that's why they chose not to settle. On the contrary, the one semi-permanent Norse site that we've found in North America, L'Anse aux Meadows, looks like it was abandoned in a highly deliberate and disciplined manner sometime around the year 1000. And broader surveys of the region have revealed no trace of contemporary Native American life, so there was no one even present to drive them out of that particular location.

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See especially:

• P. Schledermann and K.M. McCullough, “Inuit-Norse Contact in the Smith Sound Region,” in Contact, Continuity, and Collapse: The Norse Colonization of the North Atlantic, ed. by James H. Barrett (Turnhout: Brepols, 2003), pp. 183-206.
• Birgitta Linderoth Wallace, “L’Anse aux Meadows and Vinland: An Abandoned Experiment,” in ibid., pp. 207-38.

See also:

• Canadian Mysteries: Where is Vinland?
• Parks Canada: L’Anse aux Meadows
• Smithsonian: Vinland

You may also be interested in these threads:

• Why did the vikings not expand?
• What do we know about Vinland?
• What stopped the viking colonization of America?