Very depressing study of realtor discrimination on Long Island

[HouseChatte]

Mostly addressing reply #73 from @OhiBro but also making a couple of general observations:

So what if we discount the type of neighborhood from this analysis? The Realtors (or agents, though I think they were all Realtors?) lose my respect and inclination to granting latitude when they withhold access to any showings and listings, when they provide fewer listings.

I watched one of the videos embedded in the article, and it was crushing to see the clips revealing disparity to the paired participants. What a horrible way to make someone feel. If you’re “not in the business of destroying people,” how can you be an apologist for this?

[mom2and]

And yet, @ucbalumnus 51% of the time realtors did NOT treat black home buyers unequally. You seem to be arguing that realtors have to disregard the fair housing laws in order to be successful. That is not the case. Do the 51% who followed the rules have to work harder to make a sale? Perhaps, but if everyone followed the rules that would not be the case. Following the rules often has a cost, but that doesn’t mean it is OK to break the law.

[Nrdsb4]

@OhiBro said:

Roughly 70% of realtors have not attained a bachelor’s degree. They work in a tough business and deserve some respect and latitude for what they do, rather than being judged from the ivory tower by a few people that may never have needed a commission to feed their family. I’m not in the business of destroying people.

What does this have to do with the price of tea in China???

My DH is a broker who works (and has worked) for 100% commission his entire adult working life. So what? He gets to break the law because his job is “tough” and it takes a commission “to feed our family”? And if he did break the law, everyone should be hush hush so as not to “destroy” his ability to feed his family while breaking laws??? Asking him not to break the law is residing in an “ivory tower”? He deserves “respect” and “latitude” simply because he works on commission???

Give me a break with this.

[Nrdsb4]

This suggests to me that the point of the testing was not to “destroy people,” but to examine general patterns of behavior.

Ultimately, fair housing violations are determined by the courts or enforcement agencies. Authorities may choose to file charges based on egregious conduct in a single case.** More generally, they bring legal action after subjecting an agent to several paired tests to establish a pattern and to reduce the likelihood that an agent’s choices were either a fluke or soundly guided by the market at the time.**

Newsday tested each agent only once. Falling short of proving legal wrongdoing, each result points to evidence of neutral or disparate treatment in a single comparison of customer contacts and offers little insight into an agent’s general professional conduct.

Collectively, however, the individual test results, bolstered by the statistical findings, form a body of evidence suggesting the extent of discriminatory practices by agents in Long Island home sales. Additionally, read side by side, the matched transcripts uniquely revealed the hidden disparities experienced by minority house hunters without their ever knowing they had been disadvantaged.

[MaineLonghorn]

MODERATOR’S NOTE: This thread is turning into a debate. It will be closed if the argument continues. When you find yourself posting something like, “It’s hard to have a debate when words are put in to my mouth, followed by total disbelief in something that I never said or implied,” it should be a red flag.

[ucbalumnus]

@mom2and

And yet, @ucbalumnus 51% of the time realtors did NOT treat black home buyers unequally. You seem to be arguing that realtors have to disregard the fair housing laws in order to be successful.

No, that is not what I am arguing. But I am saying that some probably * believe * that they have to do so (whether or not such a belief is correct), and if their commitments to fairness and obedience to the law are weak, they may be tempted to disobey the law, especially when it is difficult to enforce.

@mom2and

Do the 51% who followed the rules have to work harder to make a sale? Perhaps, but if everyone followed the rules that would not be the case. Following the rules often has a cost, but that doesn’t mean it is OK to break the law.

If your premise here is true, or even if people merely believe it is true, is it surprising that some people (even if not the majority, though 49% is a lot) cheat so that they have to do less work, just like how some people cheat in other areas, such as SAT or college admissions cheating? But not everyone cheats, of course.

[MaineLonghorn]

MODERATOR’S NOTE: Closing thread.