This is a very misleading article. It does mention that the cost of housing is a factor, but doesn't mention that Somerville, Cambridge, and Watertown are dense urban areas, and many people with children prefer to live in a more suburban setting. It also doesn't take into account the fact that Somerville offers all day pre-school and Kindergarten at no extra charge to parents, prompting some parents who want suburban living to stay here until the kids reach elementary age. Shame on the Patch for printing this without doing some research into what's behind the data.

We are looking to move out of Somerville.
Education being one VERY large factor in the equation.

Regardless of "free" kinder care.

Cambridge also has that "not available in most suburbs" all day K. I went through Somerville schools quite a while ago, and sacrificed my kids on the altar of Cambridge schools for 8 years. When we got fed up with the de-emphasis on academics, to put it mildly, we moved to Brookline - and found ourselves surrounded by others who also had fled Cambridge. Luckily we had this option - and also kept the very attractive feature of MBTA access for the kids and short commutes for the parents.

There are many factors behind the exodus, including housing.
Certainly there are families who leave because of their perception of the schools. Unfortunately, their perception is often formed by MCAS scores, which are HIGHLY correlated with social class. If they visited, they might be impressed. Our grand-daughters at the Healey School have had outstanding teachers and diverse classmates.
The article does mention density, which could be translated: people with kids often want yards.
The university connection plays a role, since grad students often start their families, and then move for more permanent jobs.
What's not listed here is the role of housing stock, a surprising omission in a real estate report. As Somerville's housing stock continues to convert or add 1 - 2 BR condos, and increase in price, fewer and fewer families can find or afford housing.
On our street recently, a large single where generations of working class families had raised families was converted to 2 small condos selling for half a million each.
The conversion required no special permits; we could pass a zoning change that would require permits to divide 1-families.

This ratio they are using is suspect. So they take the ratio of 0-4 and 5-9 year olds? What if the number of people deciding to stay here with kids is increasing rapidly in the last 5 years (which it seems to be!)? Wouldn't that skew the numbers? Instead they should compare the number of 0-4 from 5 years ago to the number of 5-9 today?

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