10/25/2026
🏡💛 At Golden Key Realty, we take Fair Housing seriously. We will never discriminate based on race, gender or any other protected characteristic. Every client deserves dignity, respect and equal professional service.
⚖️ Fair Housing is here for a reason. Understanding the history reminds us why these protections matter. (Long read but eye opening!)
- 🚪 Racial segregation restricted where families could live. Black families and other minority families were excluded from many white neighborhoods, leaving them with limited housing choices. Many communities where they could live were denied investment, funding and essential resources, contributing to poorer housing conditions and fewer opportunities.
- 🗺️ Some cities restricted both Black and white residents. Louisville’s 1914 racial zoning ordinance prohibited Black residents from moving into predominantly white blocks and white residents from moving into predominantly Black blocks. The Supreme Court struck down that ordinance in 1917 in Buchanan v. Warley. This was racial zoning.
- 🏦 1930s through the 1960s: Redlining deepened the inequality. Lenders denied mortgage financing in many Black neighborhoods, even when individual borrowers qualified. This withheld investment from those communities and made buying and improving homes harder. The Federal Housing Administration helped institutionalize redlining beginning in 1934.
- 📜 1948: Racial deed restrictions became unenforceable in court. Many property deeds barred Black families and other minorities from buying or occupying homes in white neighborhoods. In Shelley v. Kraemer, the Supreme Court ruled that courts could no longer enforce those racial covenants.
- ⚖️ 1968: The Fair Housing Act. Signed on April 11, 1968, this law prohibited discrimination based on race, color, religion and national origin in most housing sales, rentals and mortgage lending, including racially motivated redlining.
- 🏠 After 1968: Discrimination also continued through biased appraisals. Homes could be undervalued because the homeowners were Black or because of the neighborhood’s racial makeup. In 2021, federal regulators documented inappropriate references to race and ethnicity in appraisal reports. Undervaluation could limit financing, refinancing and opportunities to build wealth. When it pushed sale prices down, those sales could become the “comparables” used for future appraisals, carrying the disadvantage forward throughout a neighborhood. A 2022 federal report described this cycle.
- 👩 1974: Federal credit protections for women. Women could obtain mortgages before 1974, but many faced denials or demands for a male cosigner because of their s*x or marital status. The Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974, effective in 1975, prohibited that discrimination. S*x discrimination was also added to the Fair Housing Act’s protections in 1974.
- 📋 1976: Broader credit protections. Congress expanded the Equal Credit Opportunity Act to include protections against discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, age and receipt of public assistance income.
- 💰 2004 through 2008: Discriminatory mortgage pricing remained an issue. The Justice Department alleged that Countrywide charged more than 200,000 Black and Hispanic borrowers higher interest rates and fees than similarly qualified white borrowers. A $335 million settlement in 2011 resolved those allegations.
- 🤝 NAR’s ongoing work: The National Association of REALTORS® promotes fair housing through its Code of Ethics, advocacy and education. In 2020, NAR adopted its ACT! Fair Housing Action Plan and launched Fairhaven, helping REALTORS® recognize and prevent discrimination. Beginning in 2025, NAR required members to complete at least two hours of fair housing training every three years.
