Fair Housing Group Says Corcoran Doesn't Care About Black People

Segregation in the NYC housing Market?
That can't be? In Brooklyn? No way?

Well, it looks like it was a surprise to Corcoran - not to mention NRT!

While it might be sadly expected, reports like this are important - it formalizes and escalates the complaint.

I agree with you but in the end the message is going to fall on deaf ears.
The only thing we can do is what you're doing Jen.
Keep this on the front burner.

But Brooklyn is Not Manhattan.
Brooklyn is the MOST segregated borough in the City.

I don't understand all the fuss about this. If the prospective buyer went into the Concoran office and asked about safe, lower-crime neighborhoods in Brooklyn, the agent necessarily would have pointed out the neighborhoods he did. Why should we force whites to live in a neighborhood they don't want to live in all for the sake of nondiscrimination? The only think I can see that would be discriminatory is if a white person came in to the office and asked to live in a black neighborhood but was steered away by the agent.

As a white parent, I'm just not going to put my kid in either an underperforming or a predominantly black school. I'm not saying that the former means the same as the latter. My reason for the former is obvious and my reason for the latter is sociological.

I realize that's not PC, and there are greater social problems that speak to why that is - but it's just reality. I wouldn't do it. In that case, I'm asking the realtor where the schools are that fit my criteria.

As a SWM, my criteria are totally different.

The problem, Steve, is a realtor deciding who they think should live where and enforcing that decision by encouraging or discouraging potential buyers based on the color of their skin. If a white guy went into Corcoran and said I want to live with other white people, or a black man went in and said I want to live with other black people, then while it might raise an eyebrow, you could justify it as responding to a client's needs.

On the other hand, take the situation you described at the end of your post and reverse it... in other words a black man goes in and says I want to live in an white neighborhood and the realtor, either overtly or subtly, says, nope, that's a white area.

I have to agree with the majority of posters and just say... racism in real estate? In NYC? DUH.

anonymass, your comment is telling. Only white families care about not sending their kids to "either an underperforming or a predominantly black school"? Why would a black family of equal means to a white family (or in the case of the experiment described in the post, of more means than a white family) want to send their kid to an underperforming school, or even a predominantly black school (which in New York means, for many reasons "predominantly poor and underperforming")?

The post is about realtors giving different information to white and black homebuyers as a means of affecting what neighborhoods those buyers end up in, based on their race. But that black family deserves the same treatment and information about neighborhoods and schools from the realtor as the white homebuyer.

Chris said: "So let me get this straight... It's O.K. to steer whites (all of which in your mind are high-income) away from low-income/minority neighborhoods because of the ensuing gentrification, but it is terribly racist to steer blacks or other minorities away from white neighborhoods? If I understand you correctly it is quite obvious here who is the racist with the double standards."

chris, i realize my clarification created a new mis-statement. thanks for pointing it out.

both forms of steering are racist. period. i was just clarifying in which form of steering there *may* (not will) be, to a limited extent, a silver lining - the steering of whites away from minority or low income neighborhoods - only and only because it may forstall or slow down the gentrification that many complain about.

btw, i never said anything about whites being rich. when referring to the possibility of increased tax revenue for the low inocome or minority neighborhoods, i was simply referring to 1) the tendency that many (though not all) new home buyers in those neighborhoods often are buying expensive, renovated pre-war buildings and, therefore, are likely to pay high(er) taxes and 2) the scenario that more people moving into low income/minority neighborhoods means population growth which means increased tax revenue while steering folks away from these neighborhoods will slow population growth, etc.

damn! look at all those black dots in my neighborhood. Time to pack up and move to white dot land.

I remember once walking in cobble hill and marvelled as I never saw a single black person. I was like "this place must have no crime". IF only I could afford cobble hill

"there is a statistically significant correlation between predominantly black neighborhoods and poor neighborhoods in the USA, and there is likewise a statistical correlation between poor neighborhoods and crime. I don't see how it's racist to admit this"

It's not. It's racist to contribute to it. It's institutional racism revealed when the largest real estate agency in NY trains their employees to practice racism.

"there's still a social and class chasm that needs to be bridged"

Oh really, douche. Thanks. Like your racist/classist comments help build that bride.

"people who aren't racist will go bankrupt"

I'm sure that's what they told the Hassidim when they bought the Black and Latino parts of Williamsburg. Housing in Williamsburg is worth next to nothing now...

P.Daddy/ Chris Rock-

Yes. The only wealthy black people in this country got rich in Entertainment and Sports and they did it by going to white schools...

Cosbys-

Never been to Fort greene?

"It's not. It's racist to contribute to it. It's institutional racism revealed when the largest real estate agency in NY trains their employees to practice racism."

Uhh, it's racist to direct clients away from higher crime neighborhoods that lack the amenities that those clients are looking for? Which is beside the point -- there are many, many problems, from educational gaps to employment gaps to plain lingering social and institutional problems that need to be solved. I'm confident that "wealthy people living next door" is pretty low on that list. Do you really think that the family forced out of their home when a trust fund baby moved into an Avenue C apartment is in a better lot now than they were before? Or the family living in a housing project on Avenue D?

"Oh really, douche. Thanks. Like your racist/classist comments help build that bride."

Lol. More trenchant analysis. Comments on gothamist that offend oversensitive idiots are deepening our nation's many social ills. You should write a sociology textbook.

If you read the report, you'll find nice little details like this one:

Agents provided limited service and information to potential African‐American homeseekers, thereby restricting their opportunity to view a number of homes in a variety of neighborhoods where their race does not predominate. In one test, a White homeseeker saw thirteen homes versus only one seen by an African‐American. Agents furthered engaged in unequal treatment by providing more detailed financial options and incentives to White homeseekers. One agent presented a White homeseeker with a sales application, and offered to negotiate a reduced sales price and research alternative living arrangements. The African‐ American homeseeker received no such service.

Lawsuit time.

I am a black female married to a white man. I had a similar situation in Manhattan. We moved to NY from Paris. He stayed in Paris a month after I moved here. I was shown three places by Cocoran in a months period. He came here -- went to the agency and we looked at 8 places in a week! It made me mad because I feel like I am as good as everyone else. We ended up buying a home in Montclair from a black homeowner. I don't think people should judge other people in groups. A lot of black people in this country are poor and while some of it can be attributed to lack of discipline, etc. A lot of can be blamed on the racist social-eco system in this country like the lack of public school funding and not enough adaquate pay labor jobs. I wish I could explain this better but English is a fourth language for me!

I did read those reports. And racism is an issue that I have dedicated the larger portion of my intellectual life toward understanding, de-coding and improving and I was saddened and tremendously under-whelmed by the findings and frankly outraged at the enormous tax payer dollars expended on this investigation ($250mil).

The NFHA claims that an agent explained that a particular area was “up and coming”. Another agent spoke to their buyers about schools in the neighborhood which the NFHA claims is some kind of coded language about the racial composition of an area. To prove that they pulled up test scores of the “bad” public schools in areas and demonstrate that they are either “near” or “slightly” above the national average. (What could be wrong with that school?) They refer to both of these acts in inflammatory terms like “Never in all my years have I witnessed such egregious acts of racial steering”. One can only say, Really? They are in the business of identifying the worst cases of discrimination… They were awarded millions of tax payer dollars and they have been conducting tests for years.. and this is the worst (the most “egregious”) of what they found.

I heard this woman on some radio show. I walked away from the show deeply angry at how this woman was trivializing such an important topic. She starts with the premise that NYC as the most abominable case nation wide of segregation; Nationally according to them “the most egregious”. (yes they use that word “egregious” like 10 times)

This is factually not true. Not because NY is some mythical world where race doesn’t matter at all. But it does not deserve this title by any stretch of the imagination. Many NY neighborhoods are shining examples of integration. Even our whitest neighborhoods are not entirely white. And where the hell are the brown and yellow dots?

So after making this astonishing (to me) statement she starts up with these references to her own “Hungarian” background as some sort of ? Something about her poor grandparents lived in Hungarian neighborhoods? She goes on to talk about how the NFHA goes into neighborhoods where white people are leaving (white flight) and they ask (plead with.. knock on doors petitioning for) them to stay “so that the neighborhood won’t go downhill”.

She says they sent out black and white testers and claim the black testers were shown less property. However probed about how the appointments were scheduled it turns out they were scheduled over the phone. So she explains in order to alert the agent to the fact that the caller was black or some other race they would “amp up” so to speak the blackness or Korean-ness or ethnicity of the callers. It has to be hard enough to fake that you are buying but on top of that to be James Johnson an attorney with a British accent.. and now place a call as Tyrone “the kill-a” who owns a chain of porn shops and is looking to buy in Ebonics…. And they are calling agents whose livelihood depends on their ability to mete out the serious, loyal and genuine buyers from the lookers, the insincere and the disloyal.

Then after explaining this fool proof methodology she goes on with some bizarre self referential bit about how her name “Shanna Smith” is soo unusual and people ask her all the time what she is. ??

Is there really such a shortage of discrimination that with these obscene amounts of money and years and years of investigation they really have to invent it like this?

Puffy also went to Howard University, an Historically Black University in DC.

"Corcoran does not want black people moving to Park Slope, and they would like to get rid of the Hispanics there too. Why? because they can't pay the higher rents that landlords there want. because they are seen as trouble by the Italian neighbors."

No surprise as far as the Italian neighbors: In my upbringing in nyc, I have found the Italians to be the most anti-black white ethnic group in the city.

The best of luck to plaintiffs in the suit against Corcoran and hopefully, a successful suit (with massive financial damages) will discourage such racist treatment.

Segregation is the adultery of an illicit intercourse between injustice and immorality.

-Martin Luther King, Jr.

Reading the gothamist post and the comments has convinced me that most people aren't interested in minorities (including white women in this group) having equal access and opportunity to fulfill the (fast disappearing but hey what else can we hope for) American Dream. EVER.

It's a cold, harsh reality that I'm incredibly familiar with but still it must be said: DAMN, PEOPLE.

It was definitely no surprise to me to find that Corcoran practices discriminatory policies. Twelve years ago my husband and I were considering moving to Fort Greene. We owned two other properties at the time one of which was the home in which we lived. Jerry Minsky, now a Senior VP at Corcoran who was affiliated with Brooklyn Landmark who merged with Corcoran politely showed my husband and I the home next to his on Greene Avenue. We made an offer that was accepted by the seller and proceeded to go to Paris for a long needed vacation. We were pre approved and more than qualified to secure the mortgage. We stayed in contact with Jerry while on vaction, however upon our return we were told that we were outbid. Jerry never offered us an opportunity to counter the bid. So we purchased a home in Victorian Flatbush with eight bedrooms, a huuuge backyard, a driveway in which we could easily park six cars, etc.. I later found out through perusing public records that the house on Greene Ave actually sold for less than what we had offered! Out of curiousity I drove by to see the ethnicity of the people who purchased the home. I was not surprised to see that they were white. Needless to say we are African American. With the money that we saved by purchasing our victorian we purchased two "tenements." One in Redhook and the other in Williamsburgh. The house that we live in and both the properties in Redhook and "Billyburg" have quadrupled in value. Thanks Jerry. Discrimination proved to be very profitable for us.