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Neighborhood · Ranked #1 of 84,120 nationally

Brickbottom Eviction Risk: High , Cambridge

Tract 25017352200 · Middlesex County, MA · pop 1,759 · neighborhood within 0.4 mi

25017352200 is a census tract in the Brickbottom area of Cambridge, MA. It scores 9.9/10 for landlords. It sits 3.6 points above the Middlesex County average of 6.3.

Risk score
9.9
High
Confidence 100% · 1–10 scale
Household mix · 100 hh
Burdened renters 41% Stable renters 38% Owners 21%
Tract context
Occupied units1,024
Renter share79.5%
SVI overall0.58
Poverty rate24.1%
Median income$88,710

Percentile rank

Higher percentile = riskier than more peers.
Within neighborhood
100 th percentile
Rank, 100th percentileLowHigh
#1 of 2 tracts In Brickbottom
Very High
Within parent city
88 th percentile
Rank, 88th percentileLowHigh
#5 of 33 tracts In Cambridge
High
Within county
98 th percentile
Rank, 98th percentileLowHigh
#9 of 357 tracts In Middlesex County
Very High
Within state
100 th percentile
Rank, 100th percentileLowHigh
#1 of 1,613 tracts In Massachusetts
Very High
Geographic context

Risk heat across Cambridge and the region

Centroid at 42.3720, -71.0851 · click any tract to drill in

Why Brickbottom scores 9.9

9 axes · 1 = landlord-friendly
Local political climate
Inherited from Cambridge
9.0
Regional political climate
2024 county presidential margin
7.3
State political climate
Massachusetts legislature & governorship
6.2
Economic stress
24.1% poverty · this tract
6.0
Supply constraint
$1,944 rent vs county FMR
1.9
Rent control risk
Inherited from Cambridge
8.5
Eviction process difficulty
State law sets the calendar
8.5
Tenant organizing strength
Inherited from Cambridge
8.5
Housing court bias
Inherited from Cambridge
8.0

How Brickbottom compares

Risk score vs. parent city, county, state.
Brickbottom risk score vs. parent city / county / state9.9This tracttract 3522008.9Cambridgeparent city6.3Countyavg tract in county6.2Stateavg tract in state
CDC Social Vulnerability Index

SVI percentile: 58

CDC/ATSDR 2022. Higher = more vulnerable. National percentile across 84k tracts.

Historical context · 1930s redlining

HOLC grade: D: Hazardous (Redlined)

This tract sits within an area graded by the Home Owners' Loan Corporation in the 1930s. Grade D meant Black, immigrant, and poor neighborhoods systematically denied mortgage credit. These designations suppressed minority homeownership for generations and remain a documented predictor of present-day eviction filings and rent burden.

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)

  • 60Total filings over 5 yrs
  • 1.49%Avg annual filing rate
  • 2.1%Peak (2014)
  • 9Filings in 2016 (latest validated)
Filings by year 2012 to 2016
Year-by-year eviction filings in tract 25017352200
Filings stayed roughly flat over the past 5 months.

Pandemic-era tracking (2020–2021)

  • 0Total filings 2020-21
  • 0.0Avg monthly (observed)
  • 1.0Pre-pandemic baseline
  • 0.00×Ratio to baseline
Monthly filings 2020–2021 2020-01-01 to 2023-11-01
Monthly eviction filings vs pre-pandemic 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 Brickbottom. 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.

Analysis

What drives eviction risk in Brickbottom

The severe-burden share is 28%, and it is the single best predictor in this model of a filing that actually reaches judgment. The score leans hardest on local political climate at 9/10. This is renter territory: 79% of occupied units are tenant-occupied.

Average gross rent is $1,944, 30% below the Cambridge average. Running hot, rent-regulation exposure reads 8.5/10.

Sitting well above the midpoint, eviction-process difficulty reads 8.5/10. 52% of renter households cross the 30%-of-income line, above the Middlesex County average of 43.0%. The poverty rate is 24%, which in this model reads as reduced rent-recovery odds after a judgment.

Princeton's Eviction Lab logged 60 filings here across 5 tracked years. The worst year on record was 2014, when 2.1% of renter households were served.

This ground was mapped D ("Hazardous") on the 1930s HOLC security maps for Cambridge. 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 1.5% of renter households face a filing. Nationally it ranks #1 of 84,120 for landlord eviction difficulty.

Social vulnerability reads 6.2/10 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 25017352200

Q1

What is the eviction-risk score for census tract 25017352200?

Census tract 25017352200 in the Brickbottom neighborhood scores 9.9/10 (High 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 25017352200?

Median gross rent is $1,944/month (ACS 5-year 2023, table B25064). 52% of renter households are cost-burdened.
Q3

What is the poverty rate in tract 25017352200?

24.1% of residents in tract 25017352200 live below the federal poverty line (ACS B17001, 2023). Population: 1,759.
Q4

How socially vulnerable is tract 25017352200?

CDC Social Vulnerability Index ranks this tract in the 58th percentile nationally. Sub-themes: socioeconomic 59th, household 23th, minority 62th, housing 68th.
Q5

Is tract 25017352200 considered part of Brickbottom?

Yes. Per Census Bureau 2020 Block Assignment Files, the plurality of blocks in tract 25017352200 fall within Brickbottom (neighborhood centroid within 0.4 miles, OSM data).
Q6

How many evictions are filed each year in tract 25017352200?

Princeton Eviction Lab recorded 60 eviction filings across 5 validated years in tract 25017352200 (2000-2018). The average annual filing rate is 1.49% of renter households, peaking at 2.1% in 2014. Source: Eviction Lab tract-validated 2024 release.
Q7

Did eviction filings in tract 25017352200 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 25017352200 struggle to pay rent?

About 11.9% 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. 8.1% also reported utility shutoff threats, a frequent precursor to eviction filings.
Q9

How does tract 25017352200 compare to Cambridge overall?

Tract 25017352200 scores 9.9/10, higher than the parent city of Cambridge at 8.9/10. City-scale signals (state law, local rent controls, court bias) are inherited from Cambridge eviction risk; what makes this tract different are its tract-specific economic stress and supply-constraint sub-scores.
Q10

Was tract 25017352200 historically redlined?

Yes. This tract sits inside an area graded by the Home Owners' Loan Corporation in the 1930s, with a dominant grade of D. 85% 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 Cambridge

Top eight tracts in Cambridge ranked by composite eviction-risk score.

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