Does Steering Still Happen In Today's Real Estate Market?

Does Steering Still Happen In Today's Real Estate Market?
By Adam Ciboch

In the United States most people believe that the fight for equal rights is over. Discrimination against ethnic minorities in areas such as public transportation and restaurants is no longer a problem. While it is encouraging that our nation has come so far, there still exists a practice among real estate brokers of showing and selling houses based on a person's ethnicity, although it is not as common as it once was. This is called steering.

There are two types of steering which are typically acknowledged. The first pertains to the real estate agent's duties of advisement to his or her clients. Sometimes a real estate agent might advise his or her clients to buy a home in a particular neighborhood solely as a consequence of their actual or perceived race. If this happens, it is referred to as steering.

Steering of second kind involves not doing something, on the other hand. It occurs when a real estate broker fails to show his or her clients any homes that meet their desired requirements. It can also simply be failing to inform the clients that such homes even exist on the market in a given area. The client's actual or perceived ethnic make-up must be the driving factor behind this act of omission. It is considered steering if this occurs.

In an effort to combat steering and other offenses of fair housing rules in the United States, federal regulations are also established. Prohibiting discrimination on the basis of ethnicity whenever a sale, rental, or financing of housing happens, the Civil Rights Act of 1968 is an illustration. Additionally protecting people from similar housing discrimination based on religion, national origin and sex, subsection 3604 is a part of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 that is also referred to as the Fair Housing Act.

Steering, although now out-of-date and highly unusual in today's real estate market, was once a serious problem during the battle for equal minority rights in the United States. It is fortunately becoming less of an occurrence, however, now that ethnicity is protected by federal laws.