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-Land of the Free
Redfin and Realtor websites won't provide crime statistics for neighborhoods when homebuyers search for houses to avoid ‘racial bias'
2021-12-17
[American Thinker] Two major websites used by homebuyers to search for properties to move into have decided that ignorance is bliss when it comes to crime statistics. As noted by Stacey Matthews on Legal Insurrection, Realtor.com and redfin.com decided on the same day that providing crime information on neighborhoods would promote racial bias. Helping families avoid moving to a house or condo in a dangerous crime-ridden neighborhood is far less important to them than virtue signaling their trendy "anti-racism."
Decorative exterior window trim can oftentimes provide a key.
Apparently they both nave forgotten the ancient maxim "caveat emptor" — "let the buyer beware." I am not certain how to render "Let the buyer be anti-racist" in Latin, but that is the replacement philosophy for these real estate marketing geniuses.

For connoisseurs of PC doubletalk, the statements issued by Realtor.com CEO David Doctorow and redfin.com’s Chief Growth Officer Christian Taubman are worth a look.

Doctorow writes:
...earlier this month, we removed the crime map layer from all search results on Realtor.com to rethink the safety information we share on Realtor.com and how we can best integrate it as part of a consumer’s home search experience.

In the weeks and months ahead, we plan to examine closely what neighborhood safety means for buyers and renters who use our site so we can reimagine how we integrate safety data on Realtor.com. Our goal is to ensure we are providing consumers with the most valuable, fair and accurate neighborhood data so they can make informed decisions about where they want to rent or purchase their next home.

We’ve also been collaborating with impressive advocates who have decades of fair housing experience.

I wonder who those "impressive advocates" are? BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors, perhaps? She knows a lot about real estate, having laid out $3.2 million for four houses, including one in lily-white Topanga Canyon.
Posted by:Besoeker

#17  Back in the late 90s I worked for a company that made auto navigation maps. We had an icons, invisible to the end users, that we put on rich neighborhoods that marked them so that nobody would routed through the area that didn't have a destination in the area. Then our field guys started returning with data on bad parts of town where people drew guns on them and threatened them.

I suggested using the same icon to avoid navigating folks through these dangerous areas. I was told the suggestion was racist.

Anyway phone navigation replaced it before anyone got killed and the company go sued so live and learn. Not sure I had a point but this madness, refusing to accept reality, has been going on a long time.
Posted by: ruprecht   2021-12-17 12:58  

#16  ^Ouch! Pretty clever though.
Posted by: Secret Master    2021-12-17 12:41  

#15  Black couple SUE real estate agency after their Bay Area home was valued at just $995,000 - but $1.42m when they removed all photos and asked a white friend to pose as its owner for viewing with second expert
Posted by: Skidmark   2021-12-17 11:21  

#14  Real estate agents I have known want to close deals. It's what they do. See: Glengarry Glen Ross. "Coffee is for closers!" (Alec Baldwin for those looking fora conspiracy angle) "It's a beautiful house. Never mind the MS-13 fambly next door..."
Posted by: M. Murcek   2021-12-17 10:55  

#13  Buying a house is like buying a car, x 10-15? You better kick the tires and do your due diligence. Nobody else is going to make you do it.
Posted by: M. Murcek   2021-12-17 10:51  

#12  Apparently a private organization like the NAR can impose a Stasi-regime on its members ... and so they have:

NationalAssociation of Realtors goes BLM-Woke, imposes anti-rayciss cancel culture on its 1.4 million members
Posted by: Merrick Ferret   2021-12-17 10:48  

#11  The Racial Equity Board Commissionâ„¢ will soon send you a letter ordering you to move to where they feel you need to live.
Posted by: M. Murcek   2021-12-17 10:39  

#10  "We make no representations about this property other than the state required property report."
Posted by: M. Murcek   2021-12-17 10:35  

#9  Truth outs in the marketplace. No family -- including black families -- wants to buy a house in an unsafe neighborhood with shitty schools.
Posted by: Merrick Ferret   2021-12-17 10:29  

#8  The unspeak movement is strong with professional organizations. There was a recent story where an NAR (National Association of Realtors) member was being prosecuted BY the NAR for his speech. The defendant is a Pastor, and as such has opinions that might not be politically correct.

The NAR's stance was that his speech from the pulpit was incompatible with the NAR's beliefs regarding fair housing and non-discrimination towards the alphabet soup gang (LGBTQRSTUVWXYZ).

We have a LOT to overcome in this country to return to the days where truth is properly valued.
Posted by: Crusader   2021-12-17 10:26  

#7  Well. As long as you get your rayciss fix indirectly, it's all good.

/snark
Posted by: M. Murcek   2021-12-17 09:30  

#6  Haha... they both aggregate and publish Greatschools.net demographic and quality score data. With two clicks any prospective buyer can see the racial composition of the nearest public schools. Crime is of course highly correlated with this demographic 'thing that must not be noticed,' per Steve Sailer.

More fun: the real estate sites also aggregate and publish the Greatschools rating. They give a 1-10 score for academic quality and publish this for every local elementary, middle and high school. This of course is positively correlated with home prices.

The kicker: a public school with a Greatschools rating below 5 is 90% likely to be majority-minority (black or Hispanic).

A public school with a rating of '9' or '10' is 90% likely to be at least 40% Asian and not more than 10% black or Hispanic.

Schools with scores in the middle ranges tend to be between 20% and 30% black or Hispanic.
Posted by: Merrick Ferret   2021-12-17 09:26  

#5   So just use the CITY DATA.COM site.
Posted by: NN2N1   2021-12-17 09:16  

#4  ^ Very subtle tradecraft there, B. Very subtle.
Posted by: M. Murcek   2021-12-17 08:00  

#3  Attend a local High School football game. Stay for the halftime show, then head on home.
Posted by: Besoeker   2021-12-17 07:59  

#2  Realtor: "I can't tell you where to look for that information, but it's on the web."

Buyer: "Can you tell me where to look for the information."

Realtor: "No, I'm not allowed to do that..."

Realtor: "I think you dropped that piece of paper, there..."
Posted by: M. Murcek   2021-12-17 07:37  

#1  So they admit there's a racial basis component for crime?
Posted by: Frank G   2021-12-17 07:37  

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