A Long Island, NY, newspaper has published a report which states racial bias is prevalent in the real estate industry, and it accuses large real estate firms in the media outlet’s reporting area of helping to foster unequal treatment of prospective homebuyers.

The sweeping investigation by Newsday published on Sunday was the result of three years of work by the newspaper, which retained paired testers to approach real estate agents seeking help in house hunting.  

The pairs were made up of one white tester paired with a Hispanic, black or Asian tester.

The report states that minority testers were often treated differently than their white counterparts. For example, some white testers would be shown houses without meeting financial qualifications, while their minority counterparts would not be shown homes unless they had first obtained the financial documentation.  

According to the report:  

“Black testers experienced disparate treatment 49 percent of the time – compared with 39 percent for Hispanic and 19 percent for Asian testers.” 

The Newsday report noted that Newsday representatives attended fair housing classes sponsored by the Long Island Board of REALTORS®. Experts who reviewed the course content stated the courses were “shockingly thin in content.” 

According to the newspaper:  

“Newsday notified the 93 agents by letters that they had been tested and recorded. When Newsday’s two fair housing consultants found evidence suggesting disparate treatment, the letters detailed the facts so agents could review their records, specified the findings, gave agents the opportunity to view videos of their actions and invited them to provide their perspectives in interviews or written statements.” 

The Long Island Board of REALTORS® issued a statement in response to the article.

“The Long Island Board of REALTORS® is deeply committed to fair and equitable treatment of all people. LIBOR has already begun a process to review, audit and enhance the delivery of its fair housing training.  REALTORS® play a key role in helping make the American Dream come true for all Long Islanders. We will continue to hold our members and ourselves to the highest ethical standards, and that means treating all people fairly and equally.”