While it sounds reasonable to assume that areas such as Long Island that have a long history of this kind of redlining garbage might still have it. I obviously agree that if this kind bias is still going on, it needs to be stopped. However, left unsaid in this article is the race of the real estate agents that were "tested". Did the study single out white real estate agents, just assuming that they are more likely to be racist? And if so, what does that say about the motivations of the authors of this study? There used to be a time when reporters were suspicious by nature and asked questions. I'd also be interested to know how or if the racial mix of real estate agents in the area has changed. Sadly, these questions were left un-asked, or at least un-reported if they were asked.
21
@The Woodwose Nope they were not just White... But then you also must understand that a lot of these agencys are not very diverse in general. BTW there is a video on newsday dot com that actually shows the study.... It is 40 minutes long
45
Maybe it has nothing to do with colour and more to do with behaviour and attitude to respecting rentals and not paying their rent. Also, maybe they don't supervise or feed their kids or teach their kids to respect the neighbours privacy and rights. None so blind as those who cannot see the truth.
22
@CK Wow your racism hat is on nice and tight.
114
@CK Or maybe, it has everything to do with the racist ignorance that you've perpetuated in your statement. Maybe, it has everything to do with white lunacy (otherwise knows as white supremacy) that dominates every system and paradigm in this country. We're in agreement on your last sentence..."none so blind as those who cannot see the truth." I would add, ..."those who cannot see the truth of their own mind and heart, and the impact their ignorance has on the rest of us."
124
I thought our North were supposed to the be our morally, intellectually more woke people in society. I think when you actually do a little digging they are the worst offenders of all!
29
We experienced similar treatment in Puerto Rico when buying a home; since we are non-Hispanic whites, we were usually sent to condo complexes with primarily non-Puerto Rico-born, non-Spanish-speaking residents. Aside from the fact that we were trying to learn about Puerto Rico as well as enjoy Puerto Rican sunshine, the prices seemed excessive. For the same price as a two-bedroom condo we bought a four bedroom house on a tree-shaded quarter cuerda* lot. And our Puerto Rican neighbors have been wonderfully welcoming.
Apparently red-lining goes on everywhere.
*(A cuerda is a little less than an acre.)
20
I'm stunned, and at the same time not really surprised, by some of the blatantly racist and/or willfully ignorant comments here. When people of color decry the idea that racism no longer is a factor in this country, I'm right there with them (it's true that in these times I think some people--not just people of color--get a little carried away with the "microaggression" accusations, but I can see how at this point some hypersensitivity is absolutely understandable).
Racism is VERY much alive and thriving. I'm white, and about as privileged as I can get, and--no matter how much I try to avoid having to witness it--I see it everywhere, almost every day. I don't know how many times I've gotten into a conversation with someone who seems nice, only to have him or her slide some kind of racist little zinger into the conversation...with every expectation that I will feel the same way (just as in the interaction with the real estate agent I posted a comment about earlier). It's painful every time--and again, I'm white.
This hideous thing is very real, and very prevalent, and very dangerous. And I'll say the cliche thing--when my son, who is now 21, goes out somewhere, I worry about his safety but at the same time thank God he's not going out into the night as a young black man.
We are no more a "post-racial society" than we are inhabitants of a flat planet.
118
Perhaps realtors experience is that it's not worth their time showing homes to blacks who aren't already pre-approved since blacks statistically will less likely qualify at any given home price due not only to cash down availability but income stream, duration of employment etc.
9
@RadOnc ...and why is it that "blacks statistically will less likely qualify at any given home price due not only to cash down availability but income stream, duration of employment etc."?
45
@MayBaby It's not the realtor's problem. Realtors work on commission, and time is money. Like anyone, they want to get the best return for it.
4
@JamesP Racism, discrimination and oppression is everyone's problem. If the roles were reversed, and whites were being treated in this way, there would be a congressional investigation and a national uproar. Please do not reduce the trauma of systemic and sustained racism to dollars and cents. My experience as a Black woman in this country is profound in it's depth of pain, trauma and terror.
69
I cannot speak to artificial 'set-up' situations but the descriptions in the article are not how homes are bought in 2019. Buyers scour websites (zillow, trulia, realitor) to find houses of interest. Buyers don't want to waste time. Lots of details are listed including multiple photos and some video tours are online. Only after selecting a house is a showing arranged, also online. The showing agent has no idea of the race or ethnicity of the party he will meet.
11
@Donna Gray You are either ignorant of how the New York-Long Island area real estate market works or you are oblivious to the fact that the author stated their sample included 100 tests. In New York City alone, the majority of real estate is sold through a very small number of real estate companies--to some, for better or worse--and generally many properties feature the name of the realtor on the sale sign. There are a host of tactics that these companies use to screen out potential buyers, even after seeing prospective buyers in person. This is also hoping that you aren't required to submit a portfolio or financial documents just to get an appointment--truly "open" houses aren't that common here. To somehow suggest that anonymity before an open house can possibly impact a sale when a real estate company has a specific population in mind to sell to is ridiculous.
51
The entire profession of real estate agents evidently ought to be stripped by default of applicable licenses to operate, and each recertified or banned from the job under Sane government and regulations to ensure we're not hiring Confederates and other bigots. Ditto cops. Ditto taxi drivers.
(Not Uber-Lyft; just ban that anti-worker shady-taxi "app" cartel outright. Our streets and lungs would thank you.)
7
To add - racial discrimination in residential real estate is not limited to Nassau County. It is alive and well in Kong’s County (Brooklyn), too.
I’m a licensed real estate salesperson for a very popular boutique agency. Last year we had a series of meetings because we hired a bunch of new agents, industry changes were afoot, our in-house infrastructure was constantly evolving.
Eventually the issue of landlord relationships came up. And newer agents asked, “what’s the right thing to do with a blatantly racist landlord?” Direct quote: “Don’t show any Black people.”
The bottom line was “do what you can to turn them around, but if push comes to shove don’t sacrifice the relationship”. And this was for rentals!
Racism is particularly destructive where American capitalism is at play.
76
Good luck being of color and moving to Massapequa. Real estate agents use Massapequa's "Union Free School District 23" as a code to say "All-white school district". As one who spent 13 years and graduated from that school district, it's easy to understand that would be used as a code word.
42
Newsday should not be taken seriously. Most real estate agents will show a buyer what they ask to see . Agents are in business to sell houses for the homeowners who list with their agencies. Agents want to make sales. They do whatever it takes to make that happen. Most work very hard to get buyers. These charges are sensational in nature without real basis
31
@Marc This investigation can be construed as "attack the messenger" as well. Most real estate agents are also messengers that accommodate the wishes of sellers and the community.
I think the behavior of these agents are more of a symptom and the disease lies in the mindset of the people living in those communities.
22
@HSN
I think it is a true stretch to call real estate agents messengers, given that they are in it only for money/profit accruing to themselves, their only motivation for being in business.
It may very well be that some of them reflect, or think they reflect, the perspectives of sellers or the communities in which they are selling homes. It may be equally true that they are reflecting their own personal biases.
Regardless of who they believe they are representing, the whole point is that they may not take it upon themselves to foster discrimination and break the law in the process, regardless of their self-perceived positive motivation, which isn't positive at all. It's just discriminatory and illegal.
28
@old lady cook
Right - who are you going to believe: me with my opinion, or dozens of people who actually experienced this?
51
If we could get rid of car dealerships and real estate agencies, the playing fields for people of color would become more even. Car dealerships and real estate agencies are outdated but are protected by local legislatures that are in their pockets. Time for some political courage, but that is rare these days.
51
@Tsippi Hmm, sure you don't want to go after corrupt officials, racist cops, unethical judges and lending institutions before going after the lowly real estate broker and the car dealer?
14
As a potential seller, I looked for realtors in my little corner of Western Nassau County seeking an agency that had all races on staff as realtors. Increasingly,it was obvious to me, Western Nassau was becoming more mixed. The agencies appear to be segregated along color lines. I could not find an agency that had both Whites and other races on staff-it seems to be all one race or all another race. I asked the realtor I eventually hired in my VERY WHITE community to invite brokers from a branch of her agency located in a racially mixed community from which people "move up" to come to an open house specifically designated for them. She said she did; I think she lied. No one showed up. My house is priced lower than the selling price of any other house in a five block radius in the past two years. It also is priced around the the mid point of the Zillow estimate. The only two bids I was brought when this broker had the listing were very low and from individuals who had grown up in the community. Dissatisfied with my broker's performance and the bigotry I suspected, I have taken the house off the market until the listing contract with her expires. When it does, I deliberately sought out and gave the listing to a realtor in a bi racial marriage. To me, it is not just a matter of discriminatory practices, but of dollars and cents. I want maximum exposure for my house so I can get the best price.
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@Smiles Will people of color from another area overvalue the house (and lifestyle) compared to people who already know the area?
2
Twenty or so years ago, my husband and I were looking into buying a building in which there would be an apartment for us, and a few more for renters.
We went to an established RE agency in our liberal little northern NJ city. As we sat with the agent, he mentioned that the agency could also provide management services. And then he leaned over, as if to let us in on the best service of all, and said, "And if you don't want any blacks in there we can make sure of that too."
We were FLOORED. I'm not sure exactly what we said at the time (I know we said something), but we quickly went elsewhere.
I did everything I could to report it. The local newspaper wouldn't make mention of it; most of their advertisers were real estate agencies. I know I called the NJ agencies that deal with real estate licensing, and with housing discrimination, and anything else I could think of. One agency actually took the trouble to take down the information to look into it and perhaps issue a warning of some sort to the RE agency, but, all in all, no one seemed to care.
And I love my little town, but even now I look around on the pretty little brownstone-lined streets, and truly wish that almost all of the faces I see around here were not white.
Coincidence? Experience says no.
169
@NGB "LIBERAL" town says it all
10
@Jimd Oh get off it. Always with the "Liberal" jabs.
38
I moved to my current 97 percent white neighborhood Long Island on 15 years ago and the 3 percent are South Asians and Hispanics. My 9 year old son was the only black child in his entire elementary school. My real estate agent was white but she was from Holland. She told us horror stories from sellers who didn't want to sell to minorities and agents. Long Island is still very segregated.
43
Anybody who thinks real estate agents only think in terms of money is being willfully ignorant. Take the blinders off and acknowledge reality.
29
Why is this news ? How many times do you have to report on this ? The same I read about decade ago and coincidently was in Long Island too. That’s where I learned that brokers could lose their licenses if they make sell to a wrong buyers . Wrong meaning ...a black buyer to a white neighborhood. This is not news , red lining is still live and well .
9
@Malaika you'd rather they don't report on it?
25
Wow. The fact that I'm the first person to write a comment speaks volumes. The Fair Housing Act is over 50 years old. The fact that qualified African-Americans still have to deal with nonsense is wild. Yet some insist racism doesn't exist.
38
This isn’t shocking at all. Every time someone screams about the “PC police” they’re just lamenting the fact that they can’t do this sort of thing anymore. Racism runs deep in Amerika. Little has changed in 50 years.
30
People making defensive excuses for this abhorrent behavior are complicit in the discrimination non-white potential buyers are subjected to. It's part of the problem.
40
I live in East Meadow, a community that is rapidly diversifying. It is still majority European American but it has developed a sizable Asian minority and now has a rapidly growing Latino population. It has a reputation for good schools and a low crime rate. There is no evidence of white flight or communal strife. Homes are in the $350,000 to $750,000 range depending on how recently and extensively they have been renovated. I have noticed that when a house comes on the market in my neighborhood (usually a white resident who has downscaled, upscaled or died), in most cases the home is sold to a non-white family. It seemed odd that white families seldom move in. The study shows why. At 62% white, real estate agents do not consider my community "white enough" to show white clients listings here. Instead they are shown similar listings in neighboring communities that are overwhelmingly white while minority buyers are not shown these listings.
20
All the ways that discrimination happens in this country. So disturbing. Thank you for bringing this to the light. Keep doing it, please!
13
My mom owned a home in White Plains. She does and we went to sell the house on our own. An AfricanAmerican came to look and after he left our next door neighbor came over a said if I sold to the man, our neighbor would sue me. I had babysat for his daughters. We never spoke again. In the end the African American didn’t buy our house. That’s the diff between tolerant and welcoming. I thought we lived in a welcoming neighborhood. How wrong I was.
43
@M E R Sounds like a frivolous lawsuit. What would your neighbor have sued you for?
8
This is not surprising. Call it racist (it is) but the general view is that even if the individual family that is looking to buy is upscale, the extended family won't be, and you'll end up with noise, crime or worse in the neighborhood. People like to be around people like themselves. It's human nature.
13
In my 70’s, I hate thinking I’ll go to my grave living the same discrimination of many decades, perhaps in all the history of this country.
Americans, whatever we are, we are not what we should be.
We should have come so much further.
27
A great example of investigative journalism by a NEWSPAPER!
And thank the universe for a free press.
47
There is literally nothing surprising about this. It's a tale as old as time. A well to-do Black man will receive worse treatment than the poorest White man. Equality has never existed and likely won't (at least in our lifetime) and there is nothing but racism (and the lack of accountability and penalty) to blame.
25
I've looked but I can't find the ethnicity of the realtors? I think this may make a difference as well.
1
I would wonder how affluent black buyers would be treated. Suppose a black man said he had $300K for a down payment, earned $400K a year, and was looking for a house in the $1-1.5 million range - what houses would he be shown?
6
Once again we find evidence of rampant discrimination and bigotry in housing. To say those words in the 21st Century shows clearly how little America has grown since civil rights and fair housing legislation was enacted more than 40 years ago. As a Black woman, I have never entertained the idea of living in Long Island. Rampant racism there is well known to the Black community.
18
This was the best quote: “We are reviewing this report but make no mistake: Every complaint received is thoroughly investigated and we urge any New Yorker who believes they have been the victim of housing discrimination to contact us immediately,” Richard Azzopardi, a spokesman for Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, said in a statement.
Now unless you, as a customer, can switch back-and-forth between being 'white' or 'black' - how would you ever know that a real estate agent's treatment of you was slanted by your race. What a cop-out to find fault with victims for not reporting this. NY and the US are charged with enforcing the laws. This is similar to many police forces - for whom "Protect and Serve" has come to mean "Respond to Some Complaints, but do Little to Protect against Crime".
Unfortunately, I suspect that this article will do little to change this unfair environment.
15
The really interesting thing is how neighborhoods change demographically over time in so many cities. When I was a child in Savannah the downtown had gotten rundown as everyone seemed to be moving to the suburbs. One of my childhood friends and her husband, buying their first house and wanting to live in town were daring enough to buy an old townhouse on one of the squares and fix it up. As more and more of their peer group did the same, the downtown started to increase in value. Now they are mostly multi-million dollar houses that have been repaired, upgraded and added on to. What the locals started, the Arrival of SCAD finished!
In Seattle, as more and more tired of the commute to the Suburbs, the inner city areas that had been Jewish, then black began to be converted to mixed neighborhoods, and the prices went up. Worn out houses were torn down and replaced. Those of us who didn't want to drive across toll bridges moved back to the wonderful old neighborhoods in town with houses of character and got a lot more house for our money, even if we had to modernize the kitchen! And more of our generation were interested in diversity. Look at Harlem in New York. It had some fancy homes, became older and poorer and now is a fashionable place to live again. Biggest problem is for those working class folks who have been forced to move further and further out of town! But at least they often get a higher price for their houses than they would have in the past.
3
This feature brought back memories from the late 80s in a suburb of Boston. My wife, who is white and now pediatric surgeon, then, had a pact that she'd be the one to house hunt. She found something we liked, got the bank and rental paper work ready. On the sign off day, we met the land lady, who appeared nervous and fusty after greeting me and commenting about my suit (Calvin Klein), which seemed odd. The next day at 8 am the phone rang and the lady said there was some confusion and that her rental agent had rented out the house and had not apprised her in time. She said good luck to my wife, who burst into tears.
24
Money is green. EVERY buyer should fill all the paperwork before you take them out. Financial disclosure, NYS disclosure, mortgage pre-approval, whether they have pets or not, if they are willing to do a renovation or not. If they are financially qualified to purchase and it and fits their criteria as far as condition -show it. Very simple.
I'm a broker and people will ask about schools, neighborhoods, neighbors - we can't answer and people get annoyed. Maybe the state should improve the disclosure form form stating that we cant legally answer those questions.
4
What point are you trying to make exactly?
19
The first paragraph speaks of two buyers having “the same amount of money to spend”. This is a fair comment if both were cash buyers. If they weren’t cash buyers, my experience is that financial institutions (with which a realtor must be familiar) would look at credit scores, the source of the down payment, and the source and stability of the income needed to pay the mortgage, real estate taxes and insurance. I’ve looked at homes where the seller required that buyers be pre-qualified on those factors before the home could be shown.
6
@Robert - Don't cook up reasons why the disparate treatment might be explained. Racism is real and the longer we ignore it the longer it will persist.
49
I'm a minority. I've bought six homes; 4 in MI, 1 in VA and 1 in GA. No problem in MI
But in VA ,the first agent kept showing me homes near Baltimore, even though I told him I wanted VA. I gave up. The second agent listened, found homes in VA and I purchased through her.
When I was ready to sell in VA the first agent I contacted told me no one would be interested in my home. I had spent 10 years fixing up and replacing everything. He told me I needed to give his "friend" $2k to fix up my house. Again, I changed agents. The next agent recommended about $150 in repairs. I used her and sold my home in 7 days for the asking price.
When I moved to GA, two years ago, the builders salesperson told me I couldn't borrow money for a deposit or down payment. She also told me I couldn't get a mortgage because I wasn't working. I hadn't asked for any financial advice. I'm a retired federal employee, my house in VA cost $100k more than the one I was buying, I have excellent credit, no debt, and more than enough in cash to buy the home. She didn't ask she just made assumptions. She reluctantly backed down when I told her I had enough in cash to purchase the home. I
Yes, we continue to struggle.
84
@Ann What defines life is the struggle. Nobody is so special that they will live without it.
1
@Ann This saddens me so. It is so unfair that so many hardworking people of color are excluded from buying properties they can afford only because of the color of their skin. It explains much of the huge wealth gap between whites and POCs. How/when will this ever come to an end?
21
@RadOnc - yes, but face it, minorities face struggles the rest of us don't ever face.
35
Do not be afraid , France is on the same path for people from Maghreb and SubSaharanAfro people.
To my mind the complex of superiority is hard to explain .
May be nostalgia of good times of settlements and colonisation.
For Us By Us must be the rule even if it is dangerous for the future.
2
As an (South) Asian American, I have faced my share of discrimination in many places. But when it comes to home buying, me or my friends and family of the same ethnicity have never encountered such discrimination. Sorry to know that this exists.
12
ANY first time buyer will get treated differently . You're shown less desirable properties - the ones that are harder to sell. A cursory review of what's for sale in an area will make this obvious.
Get to know a neighborhood if you're interested in it. Know what's available. It's much easier these days. Use multiple agents. Tell them you're doing do and tell them you will tell them if you've already been shown a property. THAT will get you exposed to more places. Agents will bring you to a place using the most attractive and problem free route. Just be aware that the normal route is on a busy route and call the agent on it - 'Oh, did I do that?'
Agents also 'typecast' you by economic status. Get prequalified (but be aware of different mortgages and the risks of each). If the market is slow look at houses priced higher than your price range. You can get bargains when an owner needs to sell and nothing is happening.
Given how much you're spending, the more research you do the better off you are.
10
@cynicalskeptic This isn't an article about general "buyer be ware" concerns. This is specifically being typecast by race. White people without prequalification are given different treatment than people of color without prequalification.
33
@cynicalskeptic
As you note, it is important to do the research. But it seems like the penalty of not doing such research is higher for people of color, regardless of economic status.
16
According to the article, there were a total of about 100 tests, with 93 real estate agents -- ie., each agent was tested only once. A single test of a real estate agent doesn't give me a lot of confidence that there weren't factors at work other than discrimination by race.
20
@Joel
You might be right if the purpose of the test were to discover and punish real estate agents who break the law. But I don't think that is how the newspaper used the data. I think the research purpose was to determine how common discrimination is. The methodology doesn't determine much about any specific real estate agent.
17
@Joel There might be some truth to that assessment. In other words, Agent A doesn't show properties if you're not prequalified, or shows properties in certain neighborhoods, etc. But the only way to see if he/she is doing in a biased way is to have one test of each buyer (one white, one of color) and see if they are treated differently.
But there are some generalities that seem to be true - white people get more listings. White buyers are shown certain neighborhoods. The generalities don't rely on specific agents.
2
I recommend watching the video in the Newsday article. Some of these people just bury themselves with their own words.
15
Real estate agents are as useful as travel agents. The internet has taken over that role with Redfin, Zillow and other companies.
11
@Elizabeth
At this very moment, I am getting ready to close on a house. I use Zillow and other online services, but our agent's local knowledge has been incredibly helpful.
Little details like this: The bank requires me to have flood insurance, but the requirement is based on a 100 year old survey made before the river was re-routed. Even taking global warming into account, *it is not going to flood.* So we can choose the cheapest insurer, without regard to anything else.
8
First time home buyers are not the preferred customers of any real estate agent except the novice.
11
@Charlie The agents were happy to accommodate white people of the same gender and economic background.
31
Another government agency sleeping on the job, waiting for individuals to submit complaints and then probably half-heartedly investigating them. Is it the individuals’ job to call their peers of a similar income and compare notes after each real estate interaction? No.
19
I happen to be a white person with a last name that is often associated with being a black person. I have experienced the sort of treatment discussed in this article when I have called real estate agents over the phone. They have heard my last name, assumed my race, and refused to show me properties in places including Riverdale. I have taken that as a cue that those places were places I wouldn’t want to live anyway. But I can tell you: this phenomenon is real and it’s not confined to Long Island.
97
Come to northern Westchester! The only color our real estate agents see is GREEN. Happy to sell to anybody anywhere.
I worked in a Houlihan Lawrence office for years and I can promise you we would have been fired for this type of behavior. We want our communities to be more diverse.
36
@Beth I tend to believe the same is true in my small city in Georgia. When I moved to my neighborhood 21 years ago, it was all white, mostly older homeowners who had bought the homes when they were built in the late 1960s. Within a year, we had our first black neighbor and in the last two years, we've had five more black families move on my street or a neighboring street.
I love diversity and live in a majority black town, which was once very segregated. Now, we have mixed race neighborhoods all over town and hopefully, we will see more of this as time goes one.
When people live near each other, work together, go to school together, they usually begin to understand that we have a lot more in common than we do differences.
Any realtor who is guilty of using people into certain neighborhoods based on race or ethnicity shouldn't be in that business. Not only it that practice illegal, it's racist.
26
The real estate agents reflect the wants of the sellers they represent. They know that if they show homes to people that don't "fit" the neighborhood character they will be blacklisted by prospective sellers and will be out of business. This problem goes much deeper than racial steering.
43
You know how they could get the money to pay for more undercover investigations? They could actually impose heavy fines on the offending realtors. I bet that would also reduce the need for undercover investigations.
Everyone should be outraged.
149
This is a good reason to get rid of real estate agents and simplify housing purchases. It is a huge rip-off for all of us to pay someone who is only concerned with self interest to choose where we will look for a home. Home buying is unnecessarily complicated and expensive. In some cases we are paying over $1000 just to have someone press the print key.
102
That would help. But I bet people of color are also discriminated against in the bidding process and the mortgage application process
If you are white, take a moment to recognize how lucky you are not to have to deal with this shtuff. That’s a privilege, and it’s one where you should be actively working to level the playing field for others.
21
@Astralnut You obviously have little appreciation for how much research, time and hard work any ethical agent must employ to help people find a home they like, to facilitate and conclude a typical real estate transaction in order to earn their commission and make a living. (I assume you, like most people, like to get paid for your work). Perhaps you just had a bad experience.
5
In 2010, I began a search to buy property. And my experience pretty much lines up with the article's findings. However, I spoke with a variety of real estate agents, a Hispanic, black and white male, white and black woman. Only the black women was willing to listen to my budget concerns, and neighborhood desires. The Hispanic male only gave me a listing of historically violent neighborhoods and refused to discuss other questions about listings that were in transitioning neighborhoods. The black and white female were apathetic in my view. I chock it up to getting them on a bad day.
The experience left me thinking that as much as things change many things stay the same.
46