April is Fair Housing Month

Federal fair housing laws prohibit discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of homes based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, and disability.  Steering is one of the biggest issues that affects fair housing. 

Steering is when a Realtor guides a home buyer toward or away from a particular neighborhood based on race.  The problem is sometimes this happens subconsciously and not on purpose.  People can be discriminatory without even realizing it.  In order to battle this problem, Realtors regularly take fair housing education so it is always on the forefront of our minds.

Realtors cannot legally comment on the safety of a neighborhood or about the racial composition of a neighborhood.  We can suggests resources such as the US Census Bureau, and other sources of information for people and crime data, but we cannot be that resource because everyone has different perceptions and biases.

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