Racial steering refers to a real estate industry practice of "steering" certain racial groups towards certain neighborhoods and houses, which helps reinforce existing segregation and lack of access to housing wealth for people of color.
Because racial steering happens on such a dispersed and individual level, it is hard to combat. But studies have demonstrated that realtors will refuse to show African American homebuyers houses in particular neighborhoods, or use excuses to not show them homes at all. Another type of racial steering is the targeting of black and Latino communities for exploitative sub-prime mortgages, which was widespread in the lead-up to the 2007 mortgage crisis. Even people of color who qualified for regular mortgages were instead offered sub-prime loans from major banks. |
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