Best PlacesSomerville, MA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Somerville, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Distance to the water drives a lot of the difference between one part and the next. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Somerville ranks 232nd of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on biking by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Somerville
BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.
The best areas in Somerville
The parts of Somerville, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first.
North Cambridge
Union Square
West Somerville, Tufts & Ball Square
Spring Hill & Winter Hill
Ten Hills, East Somerville & Mystic River
Prospect Hill & Inner Belt
Scores across Somerville run from about the 17th to the 100th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Somerville's strengths and weaknesses
Where Somerville ranks high
- BikingBetter than 99% of cities
- WalkabilityBetter than 99% of cities
- TransitBetter than 99% of cities
- Health outlookBetter than 98% of cities
- Cell coverageBetter than 97% of cities
Where Somerville ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 2% of cities
- Cheap childcare$1,897 a month, better than only 4% of cities
- Short commute30.9 minutes each way, better than only 20% of cities
- Internet speedBetter than only 20% of cities
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 23% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Somerville
A household needs to earn about $245,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Somerville home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $137,480, so buying stretches a typical household.
Where the monthly payment goes
Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses Somerville's effective rate of 0.68%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Somerville
Somerville runs younger than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Somerville.
Who works in Somerville, and how
Work in Somerville centers on professional & technical and education. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 35%
- Work from home 31%
- Transit, walk, or bike 34%
Life in Somerville
Somerville has more restaurants and bars per resident than 84% of cities and more parkland per resident than 76% of cities. The coast is about 10 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Somerville and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Somerville, month by month
Somerville sees roughly 70 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 86 degrees. January highs sit near 42, with lows near 25. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 42° | 32° | 25° |
| April | 60° | 49° | 40° |
| July | 86° | 75° | 67° |
| October | 67° | 57° | 49° |
Flying in and out of Somerville
General Edward Lawrence Logan International sits about 5 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 21.1 million passengers in 2025, with 199 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Somerville
Schools across Somerville average a C, better than 35% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Benjamin G BrownA · 65% proficient
- ThompsonA− · 62% proficient
- John F KennedyA− · 57% proficient
Top middle schools
- Gibbs SchoolA+ · 68% proficient
- Rindge Avenue Upper SchoolB+ · 50% proficient
- Vassal Lane Upper SchoolB · 43% proficient
Top high schools
- Cambridge Rindge And LatinA− · 65% proficient
- Medford HighB+ · 52% proficient
- Somerville HighB+ · 51% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Somerville school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Somerville measure by measure
Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare Somerville against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Somerville suits
Common questions about living in Somerville
Is Somerville a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Somerville ranks 232nd of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on biking, walkability, and transit, and lowest on noise and childcare costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Somerville expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $951,417. The overall cost of living runs about 48% above the national average. Set against a $137,480 median income, cost of living beats 52% of cities.
Is Somerville safe?
Somerville is safer than 34% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $349 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Somerville?
July highs average about 86 degrees, and January highs near 42 with lows near 25. That works out to about 70 pleasant days a year, more than 28% of cities.
What are the best neighborhoods in Somerville?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are North Cambridge, Union Square, and West Somerville, Tufts & Ball Square. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Compare Somerville with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Somerville. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Somerville represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.
Somerville detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Somerville: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Somerville: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Somerville: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Somerville: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Somerville detail on related sites:
- CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
- ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
- CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.
Federal and public data:
- U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
- NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
- FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
- FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
- U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
- FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
- CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
- National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
- FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
- Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.
Your priorities
Move a slider to say how much a measure matters. Zero turns it off.