Somerville vs. Cambridge

[rethcir.livejournal.com]

Hi All, I'm considering moving to a new apartment soon that, while still in striking distance of Davis, is technically a Cambridge address. Just wondering if anyone had done this and if there were any kind of tax or financial implications I ought to be aware of. I feel like the answer would be "not really" besides slight adjustments to car-related things such as excise, insurance, permits etc.

Comments

[latvianchick.livejournal.com]

RCN doesn't serve Cambridge, so you'll have to get Comcast, which doesn't have cheap plans (the cheapest internet-only plan is 60/month).

And if you're buying, there's property taxes, which are lower in Cambridge.

I'm unaware of car-related things, having never owned a car.

[ron_newman]

You will need to get a Cambridge parking permit and be sure to park only in Cambridge. Learn the difference between the two cities' parking signs -- it's important if you want to avoid tickets.

-- Signed, a former car owner who lives right at the boundary (but in Somerville)

[rethcir.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this is a major disappointment, I really love my RCN plan.. also missing MLB network will totally blow.

[perich.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this. I live right near Mass Ave and have several times seen confused people pull parking tickets out of their windshields on an early morning. "But I have a Somerville sticker!"

Good news is, you can at least exploit that Somerville sticker until it expires.

[ron_newman]

Also, Cambridge has a very different form of city government than Somerville. All city councilors are elected at large, with a preferential ballot where you have to rank your choices in order.

[rethcir.livejournal.com]

I would really miss Rebekah :(

[mrcairo.livejournal.com]

Property taxes are lower, but the cost of the property, as well as the property assessment, tends to be a lot higher than in Cambridge. End result is that Cambridge gets to brag about lower property tax rates, but you'll probably pay less (and get more) in Somerville.

Or so I discovered a few years ago when I spent some time looking into it.

[latvianchick.livejournal.com]

In general, yes - Cambridge does have more expensive neighborhoods. But I didn't find a lot of difference in price on the boundary (we've just spent a year or so looking). If the neighborhood is the same (e.g. one half of Orchard street vs. the other half of Orchard street) there isn't a "Cambridge premium" that I could see and it would be well worth going over the city line.

[ron_newman]

One last thing: you won't need a new library card, because Cambridge and Somerville are both part of the Minuteman network.

[mrcairo.livejournal.com]

Things may have changed. When people I know bought on Meacham about 8-9 years ago, they told tale of a house that strattled the line. The side with the Cambridge address went for $100+K more than the cambridge side house. There may have been minor differences, but I believe the renovation happened as a whole, so there likely weren't $100K of differences.

I never thought about it before, but I bet the building permit process for renovating over a town line must suck.

[ron_newman]

Was it this one? You'll need to enter a Somerville or other Minuteman Library Network card number to read it, but here's the abstract:

A town house divided . . .City line separates identical condos by a price tag
Doreen Iudica Vigue, Globe Staff. Boston Globe. Boston, Mass.: Aug 14, 1998. pg. B.1

CAMBRIDGE-SOMERVILLE -- The clay-colored town house condos are connected and identical, down to the last detail: Same number of bedrooms and baths, same three-season porches, same hardwood floors, same hues on the freshly painted walls.

The side-by-side duplex straddles the line between two cities: One side has a Shea Road, North Cambridge, address, and the other is on Kingston Street, Somerville. So when the homes went on the market simultaneously last spring, their selling prices reflected the reality of that accident.

The Cambridge side, which does come with a short, two-car gravel driveway (an important selling point that would typically add $15,000 to $20,000 to the selling price), sold for the asking price of $375,000.

The Somerville side, which hugs a little too close to the house next door for any hope of off-street parking, sold for $40,000 less than its clone. But a resident parking sticker was included.

[wallacestreet.livejournal.com]

Ah, but a Cambridge library card has some extra perks such as free entrance to the Harvard museums. I suppose that the Somerville card may have some of its own, but I haven't found them...

[theodosia.livejournal.com]

No Tom Champion with Snow Alerts might be a dealbreaker for some people....

[rainbow-spork.livejournal.com]

I've never actually lived in Somerville, so I can't really say for sure, but I watch this community and every time conversations come up about Somerville's INSANE parking and parking sticker and snow emergency rules, I think about how glad I am that I live on the Cambridge side of Davis, and about how much I love living in Cambridge. And, you know, I love being able to park anywhere in Cambridge, which personally I think is a better perk than being able to park anywhere in Somerville.

[ron_newman]

I didn't know that! I still have an old Cambridge card back from when Cambridge was part of Boston's network instead of Minuteman.

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

I'd be surprised if the museum employees accepted a card that didn't say Minuteman on it.