Within neighborhood
80
th percentile
High
Neighborhood · Ranked #24,859 of 84,120 nationally
Cushing Square Eviction Risk: Moderate , Belmont
Tract 25017357500 · Middlesex County, MA · pop 2,370 · neighborhood within 0.2 mi
Tract 25017357500 sits in the Cushing Square area of Belmont, MA, carrying an eviction-risk score of 5.4/10. Population here is 2,370. Severe burden reaches 29%. Those are renters paying half their income or more, and that is where non-payment filings originate.
Risk score
5.4
Moderate
Confidence 100% · 1–10 scale
Household mix · 100 hh
Burdened renters 20%
Stable renters 24%
Owners 56%
Tract context
Occupied units925
Renter share43.5%
SVI overall0.19
Poverty rate5.4%
Median income$166,563
Percentile rank
Higher percentile = riskier than more peers.Within parent city
86
th percentile
High
Within county
37
th percentile
Low
Within state
40
th percentile
Low
Geographic context
Risk heat across Belmont and the region
Centroid at 42.3835, -71.1760 · click any tract to drill in
Why Cushing Square scores 5.4
9 axes · 1 = landlord-friendlyLocal political climate
Inherited from Belmont
8.3
Regional political climate
2024 county presidential margin
7.3
State political climate
Massachusetts legislature & governorship
6.2
Economic stress
5.4% poverty · this tract
1.3
Supply constraint
$2,752 rent vs county FMR
4.7
Rent control risk
Inherited from Belmont
4.2
Eviction process difficulty
State law sets the calendar
5.8
Tenant organizing strength
Inherited from Belmont
7.5
Housing court bias
Inherited from Belmont
3.4
How Cushing Square compares
Risk score vs. parent city, county, state.CDC Social Vulnerability Index
SVI percentile: 19
CDC/ATSDR 2022. Higher = more vulnerable. National percentile across 84k tracts.
- 10%Socioeconomic
- 72%Household composition
- 37%Racial/ethnic minority
- 17%Housing & transportation
Historical context · 1930s redlining
HOLC grade: B: Still Desirable
This tract sits within an area graded by the Home Owners' Loan Corporation in the 1930s. Grade B meant middle-class areas with mortgage access. These designations suppressed minority homeownership for generations and remain a documented predictor of present-day eviction filings and rent burden.
- 10%Grade A
- 82%Grade B
- 9%Grade C
- 0%Grade D · redlined
Source: Mapping Inequality (americanpanorama.org), 1935-1940 HOLC residential security maps, aggregated to 2020 census tracts by area share. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
Eviction filings
Court-record eviction history
Court-validated eviction filings collected from county clerks and consolidated by the Eviction Lab at Princeton University. Filing rate is filings per 100 renter households.1
Historic baseline (2000–2018)
- 13Total filings over 5 yrs
- 0.77%Avg annual filing rate
- 1.8%Peak (2014)
- 1Filings in 2016 (latest validated)
Filings stayed roughly flat over the past 5 months.
Pandemic-era tracking (2020–2021)
- 0Total filings 2020-21
- 0.0Avg monthly (observed)
- 0.2Pre-pandemic baseline
- 0.00×Ratio to baseline
Pandemic filings ran far below baseline (moratorium effect). Eviction Lab tracked Boston, MA as part of its 34-metro Eviction Tracking System.
Comparable tracts
Census tracts with similar eviction risk
Within Cushing Square. Closest by Eviction Risk Score.
CDC PLACES 2023 · health & economic stress
Eviction-adjacent indicators
Crude prevalence of conditions linked to housing loss. Source: CDC PLACES (cwsq-ngmh), 2023 model-based small-area estimates.
- 5.9%Housing insecurity
- 3.7%Utility-shutoff threat
- 5.4%Food insecurity
- 5.7%SNAP enrollment
- 4.3%Transit barriers
- 2.3%No health insurance
- 12.7%Frequent mental distress
- 19.0%Any disability
Analysis
What drives eviction risk in Cushing Square
Pulling hardest the other way is economic stress at 1.3/10. Sitting well above the midpoint, local political climate reads 8.3/10.
Disability prevalence runs 19.0% against 31.5% nationally. Well under the midpoint, court filing pressure reads 2.5/10. SNAP participation runs 5.7% against 15.2% nationally.
Court records carry 13 eviction filings across 5 observed years. Against the Middlesex County average of 6.3, this tract reads safer for landlords by 0.9 points.
The worst year on record was 2014, when 1.8% of renter households were served. At $2,752 a month, rents run 9% over what the rest of Belmont commands. This ground was mapped B ("Still Desirable") on the 1930s HOLC security maps for Belmont. That grading determined who could get a mortgage, and its imprint on tenure and rent burden is still visible in the ACS data above.
In a typical year about 0.8% of renter households face a filing. That is riskier than roughly 70% of the 84,120 US census tracts in this model. Social vulnerability reads 2.7/10 on the CDC index, a measure of exposure to housing and economic shocks.
These are ACS 5-year estimates; the score moves when the ACS, court-record, or statute inputs behind it move.
Frequently asked
About tract 25017357500
Q1
What is the eviction-risk score for census tract 25017357500?
Census tract 25017357500 in the Cushing Square neighborhood scores 5.4/10 (Moderate tier). The Eviction Risk Score blends state law, county filing rates, parent-city politics, and tract-specific rent-to-income ratios + poverty signals.
Q2
What is the average rent in tract 25017357500?
Median gross rent is $2,752/month (ACS 5-year 2023, table B25064). 45% of renter households are cost-burdened.
Q3
What is the poverty rate in tract 25017357500?
5.4% of residents in tract 25017357500 live below the federal poverty line (ACS B17001, 2023). Population: 2,370.
Q4
How socially vulnerable is tract 25017357500?
CDC Social Vulnerability Index ranks this tract in the 19th percentile nationally. Sub-themes: socioeconomic 10th, household 72th, minority 37th, housing 17th.
Q5
Is tract 25017357500 considered part of Cushing Square?
Yes. Per Census Bureau 2020 Block Assignment Files, the plurality of blocks in tract 25017357500 fall within Cushing Square (neighborhood centroid within 0.2 miles, OSM data).
Q6
How many evictions are filed each year in tract 25017357500?
Princeton Eviction Lab recorded 13 eviction filings across 5 validated years in tract 25017357500 (2000-2018). The average annual filing rate is 0.77% of renter households, peaking at 1.8% in 2014. Source: Eviction Lab tract-validated 2024 release.
Q7
Did eviction filings in tract 25017357500 drop during COVID?
Pandemic-era filings ran 0.00× the pre-COVID monthly baseline. Filings dropped sharply, likely a moratorium effect. Tracked by the Eviction Lab Eviction Tracking System (Boston eviction risk, MA), 2020-2021.
Q8
What share of households in tract 25017357500 struggle to pay rent?
About 5.9% of adults in this tract reported housing insecurity (could not pay rent or mortgage in the past 12 months), per the CDC PLACES 2023 model-based small-area estimate. 3.7% also reported utility shutoff threats, a frequent precursor to eviction filings.
Q9
How does tract 25017357500 compare to Belmont overall?
Tract 25017357500 scores 5.4/10, lower than the parent city of Belmont at 6.1/10. City-scale signals (state law, local rent controls, court bias) are inherited from Belmont; what makes this tract different are its tract-specific economic stress and supply-constraint sub-scores.
Q10
Was tract 25017357500 historically redlined?
Yes. This tract sits inside an area graded by the Home Owners' Loan Corporation in the 1930s, with a dominant grade of B. 0% of the tract's area was rated D ("Hazardous"), the redlined tier. HOLC redlining systematically denied mortgage credit to Black, immigrant, and working-class neighborhoods and remains a documented predictor of present-day eviction filings, rent burden, and homeownership gaps. Source: Mapping Inequality (americanpanorama.org), Robert K. Nelson et al.
Sibling tracts
Highest-risk tracts in Belmont
Top eight tracts in Belmont ranked by composite eviction-risk score.
Tract · MA
Waverley Square
5.8
/ 10 · Elevated
Tract · MA
Waverley
5.3
/ 10 · Moderate
Tract · MA
Cushing Square
5.2
/ 10 · Moderate
Tract · MA
Mount Auburn
5.2
/ 10 · Moderate
Tract · MA
Cushing Square
5.2
/ 10 · Moderate
Tract · MA
Pierce Farm Historic District
5.2
/ 10 · Moderate
Tract · MA
Kensington Park Historic District
5.1
/ 10 · Moderate
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