A Black woman claims a white homeowner tried to pull out of a sale because of her race.

Two federal laws — the Fair Housing Act of 1968 and the much older Civil Rights Act of 1866 — make it illegal for both home sellers and their real estate agents to discriminate during a home sale. But more than 50 years after redlining was outlawed, racial discrimination remains an issue, housing advocates say. A multiyear undercover investigation by the National Fair Housing Alliance, a Washington-based nonprofit coalition of housing organizations, found that 87 percent of real estate agents participated in racial steering, opting to show their clients homes only in neighborhoods where most of the neighbors were of their same race. Agents also refused to work with Black buyers and showed Black and Latino buyers fewer homes than white buyers.

  • themeatbridge
    67•6 months ago

    I worked as a realtor, and it’s a narrow path between steering and gentrification. Buyers are very specific about the neighborhoods where they want to look, and you need to be dilligent in documenting communications along with maintaining an open mind about communities.

    That said, an alarming number of agents I met were overtly prejudiced. I worked in Philadelphia and the surrounding suburbs, and I worked with agents who would not take on certain ethnic groups, would not show homes in certain communities, and would outright refuse to work with realtors for a variety of bigoted reasons. It was weird, considering how hard it is to find clients and close deals, and these weren’t just the elite successful agents who could afford to turn down work.

    The trick, I was told once in hushed tones by a veteran agent, is to use the school districts as code. School districts publish student demographics, and any racist clients could use that to self-select where they want to live. It was a little nauseating how easy it is to engage in redlining without creating a record or pattern. I considered reporting the guy who suggested the school districts thing, but the local association was a joke and I didn’t have any proof anyway.

    Anyway, I got out of that business quickly. It was a shitty, thankless job that paid very poorly compared to the effort you put in. Clients resented you, other agents were the worst people imaginable, and the organizations that were ostensibly there for support were more interested in feathering their own nests. Racist was just a shit cherry on the shit sundae.