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I’d be on the lookout for more of these types of suits in the future as real estate sales and their role in the bubble come more in to foucs. We’ve put a lot of time and energy in on the mortgage side of the game; but there is plenty of blame/shame to heap on Realtors who pushed borrowers, sellers and loan originators in to uncomfortable situations.
RE/Max East-West is located in Illinois and has been hit with a discrimination suit which alleges that the real estate brokerage steered minorities to neighborhoods referred to as “dumps” with their white clients and provided preferential service and treatment to white clients.
Obviously, this is not the only place this occured. That the Department of Justice felt they had enough evidence to press charges is a testament to how excessive this practice at RE/Max East-West truly was. If the alleged crooked lending practices by Countrywide cannot be proven to be discriminatory, but these can you get a sense of how bad it must have been.
From the press release:
On July 18, 2008, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a federal lawsuit against the real estate brokerage doing business as Re/Max East-West alleging discrimination on the basis of race and national origin in violation of the Fair Housing Act. Re/Max East-West is a major brokerage company serving Illinois’ DuPage and Cook Counties, including the neighborhoods of Elmhurst, Lombard, Villa Park and Bensenville.
After NFHA filed a HUD complaint in 2005, HUD initiated an investigation based on NFHA’s findings and issued a charge of discrimination on June 9, 2008. The Justice Department then brought suit again Re/Max and John DeJohn in United States v. S & S GROUP, LTD. d/b/a REMAX EAST-WEST, through its successor in interest, S&W ELMHURST, LLC, also d/b/a REMAX EAST-WEST and JOHN DEJOHN (Case no. 08-CV-4099). This investigation was part of NFHA’s multi-year, multi-city enforcement project to test for housing discrimination in real estate companies identified by HUD as having previously discriminated during its Housing Discrimination Study.
NFHA’s 12 city investigation found an 87% rate of racial steering and an almost 20% rate of denial for African-Americans and Latinos. The Fair Housing Act prohibits housing discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status and disability.
Last 3 posts by Morgan
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