Within neighborhood
40
th percentile
Moderate
Neighborhood · Ranked #10,320 of 84,120 nationally
West Somerville Eviction Risk: Elevated , Cambridge
Tract 25017350900 · Middlesex County, MA · pop 3,736 · neighborhood within 0.2 mi
Census tract 25017350900 covers part of the West Somerville area of Somerville, MA, and scores 7.5/10 on landlord eviction risk. Cost burden runs 27% here against 43.0% across Middlesex County.
Risk score
7.5
Elevated
Confidence 100% · 1–10 scale
Household mix · 100 hh
Burdened renters 17%
Stable renters 44%
Owners 39%
Tract context
Occupied units1,685
Renter share60.2%
SVI overall0.05
Poverty rate8.5%
Median income$207,776
Percentile rank
Higher percentile = riskier than more peers.Within parent city
33
th percentile
Low
Within county
71
th percentile
Elevated
Within state
74
th percentile
Elevated
Geographic context
Risk heat across Cambridge and the region
Centroid at 42.3943, -71.1203 · click any tract to drill in
Why West Somerville scores 7.5
9 axes · 1 = landlord-friendlyLocal political climate
Inherited from Cambridge
8.5
Regional political climate
2024 county presidential margin
7.3
State political climate
Massachusetts legislature & governorship
6.2
Economic stress
8.5% poverty · this tract
2.1
Supply constraint
$2,891 rent vs county FMR
5.2
Rent control risk
Inherited from Cambridge
7.5
Eviction process difficulty
State law sets the calendar
8.0
Tenant organizing strength
Inherited from Cambridge
8.0
Housing court bias
Inherited from Cambridge
8.0
How West Somerville compares
Risk score vs. parent city, county, state.CDC Social Vulnerability Index
SVI percentile: 5
CDC/ATSDR 2022. Higher = more vulnerable. National percentile across 84k tracts.
- 3%Socioeconomic
- 1%Household composition
- 40%Racial/ethnic minority
- 54%Housing & transportation
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.
- 0%Grade A
- 0%Grade B
- 100%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)
- 12Total filings over 5 yrs
- 0.23%Avg annual filing rate
- 0.4%Peak (2013)
- 3Filings in 2016 (latest validated)
Filings climbed 200% over the past 5 months.
Pandemic-era tracking (2020–2021)
- 0Total filings 2020-21
- 0.0Avg monthly (observed)
- 0.3Pre-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.
- 6.3%Housing insecurity
- 3.9%Utility-shutoff threat
- 5.5%Food insecurity
- 5.7%SNAP enrollment
- 4.9%Transit barriers
- 2.6%No health insurance
- 15.1%Frequent mental distress
- 16.9%Any disability
Analysis
What drives eviction risk in West Somerville
The score leans hardest on local political climate at 8.5/10. Sitting well above the midpoint, eviction-process difficulty reads 8/10. On the high side, tenant-organizing strength reads 8/10.
It sits 1.2 points above the Middlesex County average of 6.3. Court records carry 12 eviction filings across 5 observed years.
Average gross rent is $2,891, 15% above the Somerville average. Housing insecurity runs 6.3% against 14.2% nationally. Inability to pay a utility bill runs 3.9% against 9.2% nationally. Utility arrears usually lead rent arrears by a month or two.
The worst year on record was 2013, when 0.4% 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 0.2% of renter households face a filing.
That is riskier than roughly 88% of the 84,120 US census tracts in this model. CDC social-vulnerability scoring puts the tract at 1.5/10. Against average income of $207,776, annual rent is just 17%.
Statewide the MA average is 6.2, so this tract runs 1.3 points hotter.
Tract-level figures come from the ACS 5-year release and are rebuilt whenever that, the court-record feed, or the statutory ledger behind the score changes.
Frequently asked
About tract 25017350900
Q1
What is the eviction-risk score for census tract 25017350900?
Census tract 25017350900 in the West Somerville neighborhood scores 7.5/10 (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 25017350900?
Median gross rent is $2,891/month (ACS 5-year 2023, table B25064). 27% of renter households are cost-burdened.
Q3
What is the poverty rate in tract 25017350900?
8.5% of residents in tract 25017350900 live below the federal poverty line (ACS B17001, 2023). Population: 3,736.
Q4
How socially vulnerable is tract 25017350900?
CDC Social Vulnerability Index ranks this tract in the 5th percentile nationally. Sub-themes: socioeconomic 3th, household 1th, minority 40th, housing 54th.
Q5
Is tract 25017350900 considered part of West Somerville?
Yes. Per Census Bureau 2020 Block Assignment Files, the plurality of blocks in tract 25017350900 fall within West Somerville (neighborhood centroid within 0.2 miles, OSM data).
Q6
How many evictions are filed each year in tract 25017350900?
Princeton Eviction Lab recorded 12 eviction filings across 5 validated years in tract 25017350900 (2000-2018). The average annual filing rate is 0.23% of renter households, peaking at 0.4% in 2013. Source: Eviction Lab tract-validated 2024 release.
Q7
Did eviction filings in tract 25017350900 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 25017350900 struggle to pay rent?
About 6.3% 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. 3.9% also reported utility shutoff threats, a frequent precursor to eviction filings.
Q9
How does tract 25017350900 compare to Cambridge overall?
Tract 25017350900 scores 7.5/10, 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 25017350900 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.
Tract · MA
Brickbottom
9.3
/ 10 · Very High
Tract · MA
West Somerville
9.3
/ 10 · Very High
Tract · MA
Winter Hill
9.3
/ 10 · Very High
Tract · MA
East Somerville
9.1
/ 10 · Very High
Tract · MA
East Somerville
8.5
/ 10 · High
Tract · MA
Magoun Square
8.3
/ 10 · High
Tract · MA
Teele Square
8.2
/ 10 · High
Tract · MA
Teele Square
8.1
/ 10 · High
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