Davis Square

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The increasingly swanky enclave in the Somerville-Cambridge borderlands got that much swankier in 2016, with titanic listings and sales. The unmistakable whiff of gentrification was also in the air in Davis Square, with longtime nightclub Johnny D’s closing to—what else?—make way for condos.

East Somerville

If Davis Square is Somerville’s increasingly gentrified neighborhood, East Somerville is its unabashedly old-school one. Yet change is coming from its edges in, and 2016 made that clear. The giant Wynn casino in Everett started construction and the 42-acre project in Cambridge’s NorthPoint also moved forward. If the Green Line extension ever happens, you know it’s curtains for East Somerville as everyone knows it.

• Davis Square's Johnny D's Closing to Make Way for Conversion [Curbed Boston]
• Somerville’s Most Expensive Home Sale Ever: Cavernous Condo Clears $1.725M [Curbed Boston]
• Construction on Cambridge’s Giant NorthPoint Project to Move Forward [Curbed Boston]
• Nothing stopping Everett's Wynn Boston Harbor [Curbed Boston]
• The pessimist’s guide to Greater Boston real estate in 2017 [Curbed Boston]