Town of Arlington, Fair Housing Action Plan (July 2021)

Citation: Town of Arlington, Fair Housing Action Plan (July 2021)
Jurisdiction: Arlington (municipal)
Source: Official source
Original Source: https://www.arlingtonma.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/57214/637641171662530000 ↗

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Evictions
Evictions can be one indicator that displacement is occurring, though evictions sought through the law are just one
potential mechanism of displacement. According to the Eviction Lab at Princeton University, Arlington experienced
a total of 49 evictions in 2016 (the latest available data), for an eviction rate of 0.62% (calculated as the
number of evictions per 100 renter-occupied household). The eviction filing rate for 2016 was 0.85%, meaning
that 72% of evictions filed in court led to an eviction. Evictions in Arlington have varied over the last decade but,
with exceptions of 2008-2011, have trended upwards. Evictions appear to parallel housing market troughs and
peaks; in other words, they reached a low point in 2010 following the recession and have since rebounded with
housing prices. This may indicate that, with higher market rents, landlords are incentivized to renovate their
properties or seek new higher-paying tenants. Arlington’s 2016 eviction rate of 0.62% was half that of
Middlesex county’s rate of 1.28%. (Comparison region data was not available.)
Figure 23: Evictions per Year (The Eviction Lab at Princeton University)

Number of Evictions Filings and Evictions per Year
Eviction Filings Evictions

78
71 68
64 66 62
60
53 52 49
47 44
39 36 33
34 30
25 21
17
9 9
3 3

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

Because no data is available after 2016, it is impossible to assess how eviction rates have changed. If evictions
do follow housing market trends, it is likely that evictions held steady or increased as housing costs continued to

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Arlington Fair Housing Action Plan