Within neighborhood
20
th percentile
Low
Neighborhood · Ranked #11,153 of 84,120 nationally
West Somerville Eviction Risk: Elevated , Cambridge
Tract 25017339400 · Middlesex County, MA · pop 3,918 · neighborhood within 0.5 mi
Census tract 25017339400 covers part of the West Somerville area of Medford, MA, and scores 7.3/10 on landlord eviction risk. Population here is 3,918. Severe burden reaches 29%. Those are renters paying half their income or more, and that is where non-payment filings originate.
Risk score
7.3
Elevated
Confidence 100% · 1–10 scale
Household mix · 100 hh
Burdened renters 24%
Stable renters 35%
Owners 41%
Tract context
Occupied units1,503
Renter share59.0%
SVI overall0.31
Poverty rate15.7%
Median income$118,352
Percentile rank
Higher percentile = riskier than more peers.Within parent city
77
th percentile
High
Within county
67
th percentile
Elevated
Within state
70
th percentile
Elevated
Geographic context
Risk heat across Cambridge and the region
Centroid at 42.4151, -71.1239 · click any tract to drill in
Why West Somerville scores 7.3
9 axes · 1 = landlord-friendlyLocal 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
15.7% poverty · this tract
3.9
Supply constraint
$2,498 rent vs county FMR
3.8
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.CDC Social Vulnerability Index
SVI percentile: 31
CDC/ATSDR 2022. Higher = more vulnerable. National percentile across 84k tracts.
- 38%Socioeconomic
- 3%Household composition
- 32%Racial/ethnic minority
- 76%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.
- 0%Grade A
- 79%Grade B
- 0%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)
- 34Total filings over 5 yrs
- 0.87%Avg annual filing rate
- 1.7%Peak (2012)
- 4Filings in 2016 (latest validated)
Filings dropped 69% over the past 5 months.
Pandemic-era tracking (2020–2021)
- 0Total filings 2020-21
- 0.0Avg monthly (observed)
- 0.4Pre-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 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.
- 9.4%Housing insecurity
- 6.0%Utility-shutoff threat
- 9.8%Food insecurity
- 11.5%SNAP enrollment
- 7.4%Transit barriers
- 3.7%No health insurance
- 16.8%Frequent mental distress
- 23.5%Any disability
Analysis
What drives eviction risk in West Somerville
The score leans hardest on tenant-organizing strength at 8.9/10. On the high side, local political climate reads 8.3/10. Well under the midpoint, court filing pressure reads 2.5/10.
Against the Middlesex County average of 6.3, this tract reads riskier for landlords by 1.0 points. Princeton's Eviction Lab logged 34 filings here across 5 tracked years. Food insecurity runs 9.8% against 17.8% nationally.
Adults with no health insurance runs 3.7% against 11.3% nationally. The worst year on record was 2012, when 1.7% of renter households were served.
This ground was mapped B ("Still Desirable") on the 1930s HOLC security maps for Somerville. 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 0.9% of renter households face a filing. That is riskier than roughly 87% of the 84,120 US census tracts in this model.
Social vulnerability reads 3.8/10 on the CDC index, a measure of exposure to housing and economic shocks.
All figures here are ACS 5-year estimates for this tract, refreshed as the underlying releases land.
Frequently asked
About tract 25017339400
Q1
What is the eviction-risk score for census tract 25017339400?
Census tract 25017339400 in the West Somerville neighborhood scores 7.3/10 (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 25017339400?
Median gross rent is $2,498/month (ACS 5-year 2023, table B25064). 40% of renter households are cost-burdened.
Q3
What is the poverty rate in tract 25017339400?
15.7% of residents in tract 25017339400 live below the federal poverty line (ACS B17001, 2023). Population: 3,918.
Q4
How socially vulnerable is tract 25017339400?
CDC Social Vulnerability Index ranks this tract in the 31th percentile nationally. Sub-themes: socioeconomic 38th, household 3th, minority 32th, housing 76th.
Q5
Is tract 25017339400 considered part of West Somerville?
Yes. Per Census Bureau 2020 Block Assignment Files, the plurality of blocks in tract 25017339400 fall within West Somerville (neighborhood centroid within 0.5 miles, OSM data).
Q6
How many evictions are filed each year in tract 25017339400?
Princeton Eviction Lab recorded 34 eviction filings across 5 validated years in tract 25017339400 (2000-2018). The average annual filing rate is 0.87% of renter households, peaking at 1.7% in 2012. Source: Eviction Lab tract-validated 2024 release.
Q7
Did eviction filings in tract 25017339400 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 25017339400 struggle to pay rent?
About 9.4% 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. 6.0% also reported utility shutoff threats, a frequent precursor to eviction filings.
Q9
How does tract 25017339400 compare to Cambridge overall?
Tract 25017339400 scores 7.3/10, 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 25017339400 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 Cambridge
Top eight tracts in Cambridge ranked by composite eviction-risk score.
Tract · MA
Hillside Avenue Historic District
8
/ 10 · High
Tract · MA
South Medford
8
/ 10 · High
Tract · MA
Ten Hills
7.4
/ 10 · Elevated
Tract · MA
Medford Square
7.2
/ 10 · Elevated
Tract · MA
Old Ship Street Historic District
6.8
/ 10 · Elevated
Tract · MA
West Somerville
6.6
/ 10 · Elevated
Tract · MA
Old Ship Street Historic District
6.3
/ 10 · Elevated
Tract · MA
South Medford
6.2
/ 10 · Elevated
Related