The Department of Housing and Urban Development said real estate agents may share neighborhood crime rates and school-quality data with their clients without fear of violating the Fair Housing Act.
The new guidance comes after major platforms like Realtor.com, Redfin and Trulia removed neighborhood crime data from their websites following a Jan. 26, 2021, directive from former President Biden.
The Biden memorandum ordered HUD “to administer its programs in a manner that affirmatively furthers fair housing … including by preventing practices with an unjustified discriminatory effect.”
The memorandum does not mention crime data or school quality, but the sites pulled the information out of fear they could be accused of “steering,” in which agents encourage buyers toward or away from communities based on race, religion or other protected classes.
The new HUD guidance clarifies that sharing this information is not discriminatory as long as race or other factors are not mentioned.
“Contrary to publicly available materials from industry leaders on steering, real estate agents and brokers do not violate the Fair Housing Act merely by discussing with prospective homebuyers or renters the prevalence of crime or the quality of schools in neighborhoods,” HUD Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity Craig Trainor wrote in a “Dear Colleague“ letter to real estate agents.
The new guidance comes as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion practices from the federal government.
“During the Biden Administration, major real estate brokerages and listing platforms discouraged or restricted the sharing of neighborhood information, citing fair housing concerns,” HUD said in a press release. “These changes were shaped not by the law’s requirements but out of an effort to implement diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) ideology.”
The new guidance further states that HUD’s Fair Housing Initiatives Program should not issue findings of discrimination based on agents “providing school and crime data to customers in an equal and consistent manner or truthfully answering nonracial questions on those topics.”
Further, the Federal Housing Initiatives Program should not use federal funds to file fair housing complaints over the same practices.
“Americans should not be left in the dark about vital facts like neighborhood safety or school quality,” HUD Secretary Scott Turner said. “HUD is making clear that real estate professionals can openly and lawfully provide this information in an equal and consistent manner to American families.”