Lisa Prevost’s Snob Zones: Fear, Prejudice, and Real Estate: A Book Review
Although an older book, published in 2013, Lisa Prevost’s Snob Zones: Fear, Prejudice, and Real Estate about six New England towns resisting growth still feels rather applicable today.
New Hampshire is experiencing a housing shortage, and according to the New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute (NHFPI), “New Hampshire’s housing shortage has contributed to record-high home and rental prices. […] housing in the Granite State currently falls short of needs by an estimated 23,500 housing units. By 2040, New Hampshire will need nearly 90,000 units to meet the state’s housing demand.” NHFPI goes on to say that the housing shortage is a “substantial labor force and economic constraint.”
Prevost explores how exclusionary housing practices impact social diversity, economic growth, and the housing market in general. She focuses her study on “snob zones,” areas where local zoning laws, regulations, and attitudes are designed to keep out lower-income residents and preserve a certain socio-economic status.
The book highlights how these practices contribute to the housing crisis by limiting affordable housing options and reinforcing segregation. Throughout the book, Prevost critiques the fear and prejudice underlying these practices, challenging readers to rethink the impact of zoning on society as a whole.
One of my personal beliefs is that housing instability and housing shortages create a homelessness problem.
Just recently we saw in the Dover NH Uncensored Facebook group a post that read, “Any one [sic] else concerned with the homeless camp that keeps setting up on central Ave every night.”
Comments included
- I am more concerned about the INSANE rent increases every five seconds that are causing homeless camps.
- So many working people homeless now. The gentrification of our towns is shameful.
- I have seen our historic mill town go from working class, where a man with a family of six could buy a nice home on one income and send his kids to college, to a town where working natives can’t even afford to rent an apartment and end up homeless on Central Ave, with everyone looking down their noses at them and complaining about the vagrants in town. It makes me very sad.
- I’m more concerned about the callous and cruel way people talk about the unhoused, and how the insane cost of living has made it harder to get out of tough situations. Have some compassion dude
And we can rant all we want about the mess an encampment creates, or the drug abuse and mental health issues that come along with being homeless. We can even blame the problem on the liberals or the conservatives. But there have been more times than I wish where I was a single paycheck away from being homeless. I don’t know what kind of person I would become if I was homeless. I’d worry about my cats, for sure. And wonder what homelessness would do to the mental health and stability of my fifteen-year-old. God forbid, I’d probably couch surf with my parents. Balanced and sane would not be a part of my personal bio.
Although race plays a part in Prevost’s case studies, most of Prevost’s book seems to be a battle between the wealthy and the poor. And though Prevost does suggest potential zoning solutions, she primarily focuses on exposing the negative consequences of exclusionary zoning.
She argues for changes in local zoning regulations to allow for more diverse housing options, such as multi-family homes, affordable housing units, and smaller, more affordable lots. She suggests that state and federal governments should play a more active role in ensuring fair housing practices. She emphasizes the need for educating communities about the benefits of diversity and the economic advantages of inclusive zoning. She also highlights the importance of legal challenges and grassroots movements in pushing back against exclusionary practices.
Perhaps Prevost doesn’t provide definite solutions because there are no hard-core definite solutions.
But these laws have a deep impact: they essentially dictate who gets to live in a community and who has access to shelter. By limiting the types of housing that can be built, zoning laws restrict the availability of affordable housing, leading to a scarcity of homes for lower-income individuals and families.
When zoning laws prioritize single-family homes on large lots, they inherently drive property values and the cost of living, making it difficult for lower-income individuals to afford housing. As these individuals are priced out of the market, they are left with fewer and fewer options. In the absence of affordable alternatives—like multi-family units, smaller homes, or apartments—they face a grim reality: housing instability or outright homelessness.
This isn’t just a theoretical problem. In practice, when a town zones out affordable housing, it is effectively saying that people who can’t afford expensive homes don’t belong in that community. This exclusionary tactic doesn’t just segregate by income; it creates a ripple effect, forcing vulnerable populations into unstable living situations or into homelessness.
Just to use Dover as an example, since I live there. According to the NH Zoning Atlas Findings, Dover allows duplex housing in 82% of its residential zones. Anything larger than a duplex, such as a triplex or a five-plex, is permitted in 65% of those zones. And those numbers are generously high. Additionally, there has been a local push for ADUs, and a tiny house movement has begun to take off in the city as well. However, approximately 38% of Dover is zoned R-40, where a new construction home needs at least an acre or more.
During June 11, 2024’s Dover planning board meeting, member George DeBoer commented, “We have tended to think about increasing density in the urban core and we have been a little bit hesitant to think about it in the rural district. But we’ve had a number of proposals […] that suggests that the rural part of Dover is also a place where we might increase density.”
Rob Dapice of NH Housing Authority told Dover Deputy City Manager Christopher Parker on the July 23, 2024 Dover Download podcast episode that “Most folks looking at the housing market here in New Hampshire today, and frankly a lot of the country would agree that something is not working. That there is a mismatch between supply and demand. Where people […] don’t have enough choices that’s driving up prices to unhealthy levels.”
Without affordable housing options, the workforce that supports local economies—teachers, service workers, healthcare workers—can’t afford to live where they work. This leads to longer commutes, which adds stress and reduces quality of life, or worse, to situations where these workers become homeless themselves. The housing market’s structure, driven by zoning laws, thus directly influences the stability of entire communities.
We’ve got to “focus on solving the problem, not complaining about the problem or overanalyzing how we got to the problem, but we got to solve it. And we’ve got to come up with creative ways to solving it,” Parker commented on the Dover Download podcast.
As fewer affordable homes are built, demand for the limited supply drives prices even higher, pushing more people into financial precarity. Those who are already struggling may find themselves unable to keep up with rising rents or mortgage payments, increasing the risk of eviction and, ultimately, homelessness.
In essence, zoning laws are a form of social engineering, deciding not just the layout of our towns but who gets to participate in the life of a community. On a human level, zoning laws can limit affordable housing options and effectively strip away the basic dignity of having a home. The psychological and emotional toll of homelessness—fear, instability, lack of privacy—cannot be overstated. People without homes face barriers to employment, education, and healthcare, which perpetuates the cycle of poverty. In this way, zoning laws don’t just decide where buildings go—they decide where people go, or if they go anywhere at all.
Snob Zones, though outdated, still feels fresh and relevant, considering the New Hampshire housing crisis we are currently experiencing. The book reveals the deep-seated issues within our zoning laws that do more than just shape neighborhoods—they shape lives, often in detrimental ways.
While the book doesn’t offer concrete solutions, it does make one thing clear: without significant changes to our zoning laws and a commitment to affordable housing, the housing crisis in New Hampshire and elsewhere in the country will only deepen, and with it, the homelessness epidemic will continue to grow. It’s a call to action that we can no longer afford to ignore.
Prevost is a local-ish author, a staff writer in Yale University’s Office of Public Affairs & Communications. Her freelance work specializes in housing, real estate development and the transition to clean energy. Her work has regularly appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe and Boston Globe Magazine, Design New England, and New Hampshire Business Review to name a few. You can purchase her book on Amazon, and visit her website here.
