Cambridge and Somerville meet along a border that runs past Porter Square, Inman Square and the old rail yards near Union Square, and in places it is hard to tell which city a street belongs to. Both are dense, both are full of wood-frame houses from around 1900, and both rely heavily on resident permit parking. The differences a buyer notices tend to come down to which transit lines are closest, what kind of building a listing sits in, and which city government handles the tax bill and services. Our area guides go deeper on Cambridge and Somerville.
Two cities, two sets of services
Neither city is part of Boston, and they are not part of each other.
Tax rates are set each year by each city, so compare the current figures on our Greater Boston property tax rates page rather than relying on an old listing sheet. For school data, the state’s official profiles are at profiles.doe.mass.edu.
How the housing differs
Cambridge
Cambridge has a wider spread of building eras.
- West Cambridge and Brattle Street hold some of the oldest houses in the region on larger lots.
- Mid-Cambridge and Avon Hill have Victorian mansard and Queen Anne houses (many now condos).
- Cambridgeport, East Cambridge and Wellington-Harrington have worker cottages, two-families and triple-deckers on tight lots.
- Kendall Square and Cambridge Crossing add mid-rise and high-rise buildings of a scale Somerville has mainly at Assembly Row and Union Square.
Cambridge also has historic review to consider.
Somerville
Somerville’s streets are more uniform. Triple-deckers and two-families, stacked or side by side, fill most blocks across the hills, with Victorian single-families mixed in.
A large share of sales are condos of one to three units in converted houses, so the condo documents, reserves and any deeded parking or yard rights deserve the same attention as the unit. Our guide to buying a condo covers what to read, and the multi-family guide covers buying a whole two- or three-family.
Getting around
Cambridge
Cambridge is organized along the Red Line, with five stations from Alewife to Kendall/MIT, plus Fitchburg Line commuter rail at Porter.
Somerville
Somerville has one Red Line stop at Davis but gained five Green Line stations in 2022, and the Orange Line stops at Assembly on the Mystic River. A Somerville address near Union Square or the Medford Branch may now be closer to a station than it was a few years ago, while some blocks still sit a longer walk from any stop.
Paths for walking and cycling
For walkers and cyclists, the Somerville Community Path runs from the Cambridge line near Davis Square east to East Cambridge, and at its western end the Alewife Linear Park continues to Alewife and the start of the Minuteman Bikeway. On the Cambridge side, Memorial Drive follows the Charles along Cambridge’s southern edge.
Talk through a specific address
Pricing varies block by block in both cities and depends heavily on building type, unit position and parking. If you are weighing a Cambridge condo against a Somerville two-family, or just want recent sales near a particular square, reach out to The Pettengill Group and we will pull the current numbers together. You can also start a home search.