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Neighborhood · Ranked #14,906 of 84,120 nationally

West Somerville Eviction Risk: Elevated , Cambridge

Tract 25017339300 · Middlesex County, MA · pop 3,179 · neighborhood within 0.8 mi

With a score of 6.6/10, tract 25017339300 in the West Somerville area of Medford, MA reads elevated for landlord eviction risk. Against Middlesex County at 43.0%, 25% of renters here are cost-burdened.

Risk score
6.6
Elevated
Confidence 100% · 1–10 scale
Household mix · 100 hh
Burdened renters 12% Stable renters 37% Owners 51%
Tract context
Occupied units1,208
Renter share49.1%
SVI overall0.38
Poverty rate5.9%
Median income$108,889

Percentile rank

Higher percentile = riskier than more peers.
Within neighborhood
0 th percentile
Rank, 0th percentileLowHigh
#6 of 6 tracts In West Somerville
Very Low
Within parent city
54 th percentile
Rank, 54th percentileLowHigh
#7 of 14 tracts In Cambridge
Moderate
Within county
61 th percentile
Rank, 61st percentileLowHigh
#141 of 357 tracts In Middlesex County
Elevated
Within state
58 th percentile
Rank, 58th percentileLowHigh
#678 of 1,613 tracts In Massachusetts
Elevated
Geographic context

Risk heat across Cambridge and the region

Centroid at 42.4190, -71.1341 · click any tract to drill in

Why West Somerville scores 6.6

9 axes · 1 = landlord-friendly
Local political climate
Inherited from Cambridge
8.3
Regional political climate
2024 county presidential margin
7.3
State political climate
Massachusetts legislature & governorship
6.2
Economic stress
5.9% poverty · this tract
1.5
Supply constraint
$1,803 rent vs county FMR
1.4
Rent control risk
Inherited from Cambridge
4.8
Eviction process difficulty
State law sets the calendar
6.1
Tenant organizing strength
Inherited from Cambridge
8.9
Housing court bias
Inherited from Cambridge
4.6

How West Somerville compares

Risk score vs. parent city, county, state.
West Somerville risk score vs. parent city / county / state6.6This tracttract 3393008.9Cambridgeparent city6.3Countyavg tract in county6.2Stateavg tract in state
CDC Social Vulnerability Index

SVI percentile: 38

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

Historical context · 1930s redlining

HOLC grade: C: Definitely Declining

This tract sits within an area graded by the Home Owners' Loan Corporation in the 1930s. Grade C meant mixed-race / working-class neighborhoods rated as risky. 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)

  • 35Total filings over 5 yrs
  • 1.56%Avg annual filing rate
  • 2.5%Peak (2015)
  • 4Filings in 2016 (latest validated)
Filings by year 2012 to 2016
Year-by-year eviction filings in tract 25017339300
Filings dropped 20% over the past 5 months.

Pandemic-era tracking (2020–2021)

  • 0Total filings 2020-21
  • 0.0Avg monthly (observed)
  • 0.6Pre-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 West Somerville. 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 West Somerville

The dominant input is tenant-organizing strength at 8.9/10. On the softer side, supply constraint reads 1.4/10.

At $1,803 a month, rents run 28% under what the rest of Medford commands. Well under the midpoint, economic stress reads 1.5/10. Princeton's Eviction Lab logged 35 filings here across 5 tracked years.

Adults with no health insurance runs 3.8% against 11.3% nationally. Food insecurity runs 10.7% against 17.8% nationally. The worst year on record was 2015, when 2.5% of renter households were served.

In the 1930s the federal Home Owners' Loan Corporation graded this ground C ("Definitely Declining"). Redlining cut off mortgage credit to whole blocks for decades, and the areas graded D still carry measurably lower ownership and higher rent burden today. In a typical year about 1.6% of renter households face a filing.

That is riskier than roughly 82% of the 84,120 US census tracts in this model. CDC social-vulnerability scoring puts the tract at 4.4/10.

Of its three components the socioeconomic standing measure is the least pressured. Poverty sits at 6%, low enough that arrears here usually signal a specific shock rather than a structural income gap.

These are ACS 5-year estimates; the score moves when the ACS, court-record, or statute inputs behind it move.

Frequently asked

About tract 25017339300

Q1

What is the eviction-risk score for census tract 25017339300?

Census tract 25017339300 in the West Somerville neighborhood scores 6.6/10 (Elevated 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 25017339300?

Median gross rent is $1,803/month (ACS 5-year 2023, table B25064). 25% of renter households are cost-burdened.
Q3

What is the poverty rate in tract 25017339300?

5.9% of residents in tract 25017339300 live below the federal poverty line (ACS B17001, 2023). Population: 3,179.
Q4

How socially vulnerable is tract 25017339300?

CDC Social Vulnerability Index ranks this tract in the 38th percentile nationally. Sub-themes: socioeconomic 12th, household 40th, minority 64th, housing 73th.
Q5

Is tract 25017339300 considered part of West Somerville?

Yes. Per Census Bureau 2020 Block Assignment Files, the plurality of blocks in tract 25017339300 fall within West Somerville (neighborhood centroid within 0.8 miles, OSM data).
Q6

How many evictions are filed each year in tract 25017339300?

Princeton Eviction Lab recorded 35 eviction filings across 5 validated years in tract 25017339300 (2000-2018). The average annual filing rate is 1.56% of renter households, peaking at 2.5% in 2015. Source: Eviction Lab tract-validated 2024 release.
Q7

Did eviction filings in tract 25017339300 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 25017339300 struggle to pay rent?

About 10.7% 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. 6.7% also reported utility shutoff threats, a frequent precursor to eviction filings.
Q9

How does tract 25017339300 compare to Cambridge overall?

Tract 25017339300 scores 6.6/10, lower 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 25017339300 historically redlined?

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

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

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