West Somerville Eviction Risk: High

Against a Cambridge baseline of 27.9%, 39% of renters here cross the 30%-of-income line. What pushes the score up most is tenant-organizing strength at 8.5/10.

Average gross rent is $2,122, 24% below the Cambridge average of $2,787. 15% are severely burdened, paying half their income or more in rent. That cohort has no absorption capacity for an unexpected bill, and it is where non-payment filings originate. Sitting well above the midpoint is eviction-process difficulty at 7.6/10.

Filings are well documented here: 92 across 4 observed tracts. Running cool is supply constraint, at 2.8/10. 4.1% of adults carry no health insurance against 11.3% nationally, a common route into sudden unpayable debt.

The worst year on record was 2015, when filings touched 2.5% of renter households. The most recent observed rate, 0.7% in 2016, is well off that peak.

That places it #10 of 13 neighborhoods in Cambridge. The closest comparables inside the same city are Coolidge Hill and Larchwood. Annual rent works out to 21% of average household income of $118,876.

Underwrite the address, not the area: with 3.3 points between its best and worst tract, the per-tract table below is the operative number. Scores move when the ACS release, the court-record feed, or the statute ledger behind them moves.