Redfin Agrees to a $4 Million Settlement Over Digital Redlining

For prospective homebuyers, the online search portal and real estate brokerage Redfin is a go-to resource. Listings in more than 100 housing markets in the United States and Canada can be browsed easily, and a monthly average of more than 47 million users did so in 2021, according to the company’s annual report.

But in certain markets, search results had a big caveat. Redfin would show the listings, but due to what it called a “minimum price limit,” the company declined to make the full range of its services available—including real estate agents, professional photos, and promotion. That disproportionately affected homes in non-white areas.

“That policy resulted in Redfin predominantly not providing services in Black and Latino areas and predominantly offering services in white areas,” says Morgan Williams, general counsel of the National Fair Housing Alliance. For example, in the majority-minority city of Chicago, the minimum price threshold was set at $400,000, while in neighboring DuPage County, the threshold was just $275,000. In the majority-Black city of Detroit, the minimum price was $700,000, while outside city borders that limit was just $250,000. Redfin defended this policy, arguing that limiting its activities by price is the only fair way for the company to operate profitably.