In the Trump Administration, HUD HAS REVERSED ITS LONG-STANDING VIEW ON real estate professionals sharing information about neighborhood crime rates and schools.

Last week, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), through HUD Secretary Scott Turner, sent a “Dear Colleague” letter to real estate professionals clarifying they are not violating the Fair Housing Act when they share information with prospective homebuyers about neighborhood crime rates and school quality data. This is inconsistent with the professional training Realtors have received many years. For all of my career, the sound guidance has been effectively this: “Do not discuss crime, schools, demographics, religion, or neighborhood character at all. Refer clients to third-party sources." There are a lot of good reasons for this counsel. But many would agree that this guidance has always been more restrictive than the actual statutory text required. There is politics in HUD’s letter, as this practice has existed long before the Biden administration’s “effort to implement diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) ideology.” In the end, I don’t think my practice changes much from this rule. I am neither a crime expert or a good schools expert, so I will continue to point my client’s to law enforcement websites, school district websites, and sex offender registries to make informed, data-based decisions about where they should live. And something remains the same: Realtors cannot provide information related to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national original, disability, familial status, or ancestry.