Somerville hasn’t been Slummerville in a while, but now the city’s median household income is higher than Cambridge’s, according to recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Driving that shift: Somerville’s median household income grew faster than any Massachusetts municipality with at least 20,000 residents from 2014 to 2024.
Median household income in Somerville, as measured by the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey five-year estimates published in January 2026, increased from $66,866 in 2014 to $132,572 in 2024, or 98.3%. The figures are not adjusted for inflation, meaning the increase does not represent a doubling of residents’ purchasing power.
The change extended well beyond the median. In 2014, approximately one-third of Somerville households earned less than $50,000 annually. In 2024, that number was down to just 16%, according to Tom Galligani, the city’s director of planning and strategy. The proportions were almost reversed when looking at households earning more than $200,000, which in the same period grew from 14% to roughly one-third. Those figures are also not adjusted for inflation.
The city’s transformation from densely populated working-class community into a desirable destination for young professionals has been underway for decades. But, the latest census figures suggest that its gentrification has accelerated dramatically over the past 10 years. With it comes a core question: Are longtime residents becoming wealthier, or are higher-income newcomers increasingly replacing those who can no longer afford to live in the city?
Meet the new neighbors
Galligani noted that approximately 70% of Somerville’s housing units are occupied by renters, so the city can see considerable residential turnover. Anecdotally, at least, he said the newcomers represent “a different cohort of people, for sure.”
Fueling the change, and growth in income, has been Greater Boston’s bustling technology sector, followed by the Green Line Extension. Development around new transit stations and in Assembly Row has strengthened the city’s commercial tax base, Galligani said, helping fund public services. This is not just the case for Somerville. “You also see a huge increase from places like Malden, Medford, Arlington … so this is really a regional story, as much as it is a story about Somerville,” Galligani said.
The influx of higher-income residents is an economic success story, said Jennifer Lawrence, executive director of the Somerville Chamber of Commerce. “There are more potential customers now. There’s more disposable income. There’s new commercial activity. There’s been significant investment in the city,” Lawrence said.
Change brings consequences
However, she cautioned that those benefits have not been evenly distributed. Rising commercial rents and operating costs have put pressure on independent shops and restaurants, threatening the survival of both longtime mom-and-pop businesses and immigrant-owned enterprises. “Economic growth and equitable economic development are not interchangeable,” she said, adding that the chamber has conducted extensive outreach to immigrant-owned businesses to better understand their needs. “I don’t want us to lose those long-term businesses that have been here for generations.”
Living in Somerville has also become increasingly less affordable, said Ellen Shachter, director of the city’s Office of Housing Stability. As higher earners compete for apartments, landlords can charge rents that longtime tenants may be unable to pay. “What that obviously does is squeeze those people who are … low and moderate income, who are unable to keep up with those increases as the average wages of Somerville residents goes up,” Shachter said.
Sales of longtime family-owned rental properties have compounded the problem. Landlords who purchased buildings decades ago may have kept rents relatively low, but new owners paying today’s property prices often raise rents substantially to cover their costs. “Once that building changes hands, [charging lower rents] is no longer a possible scenario anymore because the price being paid for those units is so high,” Shachter said.
Even people living in subsidized housing can be affected by rising incomes. In Somerville, 380 of the city’s 425 inclusionary rental apartments, nearly 90%, were in the two lowest affordability tiers in July 2024, reserved for households earning up to 50% and 80% of the regional area median income (AMI), according to the city’s 2024 Inclusionary Housing Program Annual Report. Rents in those tiers are tied to federally determined limits based on regional income levels, meaning they can rise even when tenants’ own earnings remain unchanged.
Working people and families are already leaving the city, according to a statement from Elizabeth Devane, director of development at the Somerville Community Corporation, a nonprofit that develops affordable housing and provides financial and career assistance. “What we hear from (lower-income residents) is not a story of new prosperity,” the organization said in a statement that noted people struggling to cover rent, including working more than one job.
The state needs to act to stanch the displacement of longtime renters, said state Rep. Mike Connolly, whose district includes part of Somerville. He called for stronger tenant protections, recalling a message he delivered at the Green Line extension’s opening in 2022: “We need rent control and rent stabilization to help ensure that the people who have lived without transit get to live in the community with transit.”
Somerville’s Office of Housing Stability offers rental assistance, housing search support and municipal housing vouchers. Shachter said the city also supports state legislation allowing rent stabilization, tenant opportunities to purchase rental properties and a real estate transfer fee to fund affordable housing.
Devane called for stronger tenant protections and emphasized the importance of preserving the city’s economic diversity. “We know Somerville can attract high earners. The question now is whether the people who have been here all along get to stay and share in that growth.”
Lawrence predicted that the next decade will bring more modest income growth, thanks to a regional downturn in biology and slower overall economic expansion. She still expects income growth, but “I don’t know that it’s going to be the 10 years that we just saw. Like, that was quite wild.”
A stronger
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