[gtranslate]globe icon
  1. Home
  2. News & Events
  3. St. Anslem’s College…

St. Anslem’s College polling data shows increase in pro-housing attitudes among Granite Staters

July 18, 2024

Saint Anselm College Surveys Voter Attitudes on Affordable Housing

(MANCHESTER, NH) – The The Center for Ethics in Society at Saint Anselm College released polling data showing an increase in pro-housing attitudes among Granite Staters again this year as New Hampshire grapples with its ongoing problem of housing affordability, according to the 2024 Saint Anselm College Survey Center poll on housing.  

The poll of 844 New Hampshire voters shows a vast majority of the state’s residents support additional housing development: 75% of respondents agreed that their own communities need more affordable housing to be built. It also showed growing skepticism of local control over zoning: 62% agreed that the state should do more to encourage municipalities to remove barriers to housing development and 61% of NH voters think that their towns and communities should loosen planning and zoning restrictions on new housing.

“These poll results show that there is widespread support for more housing across the state and across every demographic category,” said Max Latona, Executive Director of the Center for Ethics in Society. “New Hampshire residents clearly want our state and local leaders to take action to encourage more homes to be built.” 

These results are from the 2024 statewide survey of voter attitudes on affordable housing conducted by the Saint Anselm College Survey Center and are based on online surveys of 844 New Hampshire registered voters. Surveys were collected between June 12th and 13th, 2024, from cell phone users randomly drawn from a sample of registered voters reflecting the demographic and partisan characteristics of the voting population.

Please email ethics@anselm.edu for full polling results. The key takeaways include:

  1. Pro-Housing Attitudes Consistently Strong

The Center for Ethics in Society’s annual survey of voter attitudes on affordable housing shows that pro-housing attitudes remain consistently strong across all demographic categories.

  • 75% of respondents agreed that their communities need more affordable housing to be built
  • 61% think that multifamily housing should be available in all of New Hampshire’s communities, not just its cities
  • 59% want more affordable homes not only in their communities, but even in their own neighborhoods 
  1. Local Control

Polling shows there is growing skepticism about local control from NH voters. By a 2-1 margin, voters want planning and zoning regulations to change in their communities, and they don’t seem to really care whether communities make those changes on their own, or if the state nudges their communities to do so. Of those responding to the poll, 62% agreed that the state should do more to encourage municipalities to remove barriers to housing development, and 61% of NH voters think that their towns and communities should loosen planning and zoning restrictions on new housing.

  1. Homeowner Attitudes

One surprising development in the 2024 poll concerns attitudes toward housing among New Hampshire homeowners, who are often assumed to be resistant to change.

The poll shows that homeowners join all categories, including renters, in expressing overwhelmingly strong support for more housing in our communities. Sixty-one percent of homeowners disagreed with the claim “NH communities should do more to prevent housing development and keep the state the way it is.”

The recent poll also shows a decline in NIMBY (“not in my backyard”) attitudes among homeowners. In recent years while both renters and homeowners have shown strong support for pro-housing measures in their own neighborhoods, renters have generally been more favorable. This year’s polling shows that the gap is narrowing, with homeowner support for more housing in their neighborhoods rising from +10 to +20 in 2024, with 57% in favor and 37% opposed.

Homeowners also expressed more support for changing planning and zoning regulations to make such local housing possible. Net agreement rose from +13 to +23, with 58% in favor and 23% opposed. Local planning boards might take notice of this when considering whether there may be local homeowner support for loosening restrictions on new housing in their communities.

At the state level, homeowners are also strongly in support of legislative action to encourage communities to remove barriers to housing development: 60% of homeowners agree that the state should do more, with only 33% disagreeing. More specifically, homeowner support has grown for a state law legalizing conversions of single-family homes to 2-, 3-, and 4-unit buildings in residential zones wherever the lot has water and sewer connections. Maine and Vermont have passed similar bills, but it has repeatedly failed in New Hampshire. Net support has grown from +2 to +14, as 44% of homeowners in support and 30% opposed (36% vs 34% in 2023).

  1. Age 65+ Demographic

While every age group expressed pro-housing attitudes, the strongest pro-housing sentiments came from New Hampshire voters over the age of 65, who represented 32% of the respondents to the survey. Whether concerned about downsizing for themselves, or affordable homes for their children and  grandchildren, or just the growth and vibrancy of their communities, New Hampshire residents 65 or older overwhelmingly support more affordable housing in their communities (86% in favor, 9% opposed), including apartments, duplexes and townhouses (70% in favor, 28% opposed), changes in local zoning to allow more housing (69% in favor, 23% opposed), and state action to encourage municipalities to remove barriers to housing production (65% in favor, 29% opposed)

  1. State Funding

In one new polling question concerning state funding for housing, 64% of respondents agree that as state lawmakers contemplate the next budget, they should include public investments to build more affordable housing. Only 31% disagreed. Again, voters age 65 and older registered the strongest support, with 70% in favor of public funding, and 25% opposed.

Survey notes:

These results are from a Saint Anselm College Survey Center poll based on online surveys of 844 New Hampshire registered voters. Surveys were collected between June 12th and 13th, 2024 from cell phone users randomly drawn from a sample of registered voters reflecting the demographic and partisan characteristics of the voting population. Wording on the first question was rotated through a split sample. The survey has an overall margin of sampling error of +/- 3.4% with a confidence interval of 95%. The data are weighted for age, gender, geography, and education based on a voter demographic model derived from historical voting patterns but are not weighted by party registration or party identification. Funding for this survey was provided by New Hampshire Housing.