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.
Outside of obvious ethnic names, which isn’t an issue here, how does the seller even know what a potential buyer looks like?
I never spoke to the previous owner of my home, and I have no idea what they look like. The opposite is also true. I have a name on various forms, but that’s it. Our only correspondence was through various documents sent between our agents. I didn’t even see the seller at closing; we signed the closing documents at different times.
It sounds like her real estate agent is on her side, so unless the agent was trying to sabotage the sale, how does this happen?
She drove the 3 hours to see the house, and the seller came home as she was leaving. So chance encounter.
Even then, it can be given away if your name sounds “black.”
A woman named Mary is going to have an easier job getting a house in a predominantly white neighborhood than a woman named Shaniqua.