Showing posts with label discrimination. Show all posts
Showing posts with label discrimination. Show all posts

Friday, May 16, 2008

Fannie Mae Abandons Variable Down Payment for Declining Markets Policy.

Readers may recall earlier posts HERE and HERE discussing Fannie Mae's declining markets policies that in my view could have been seen as a new form of redlining.

Fannie Mae has now announced HERE that they will be no longer be using variable down payment levels for declining markets.

A Bloomberg News story HERE confirms that I was not the only observer who had raised the issue of potential redlining.

"
Housing advocates such as the Oak Park Regional Housing Center in suburban Chicago complained that by basing requirements for 5 percent larger down payments on the state of housing markets in certain zip codes, rather than broader metropolitan areas, Fannie Mae was in engaging a type of discrimination called redlining."

Sunday, March 16, 2008

REPOST: Chicago Appeals Court Affirms Craigslist Protected Against Discriminatory Housing Ad Charges.

[Reposted to correct link to Opinion file and to add additional link to .MP3 audio file of oral arguments made in this appeals court decision].

The 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Chicago, in an opinion
HERE, has upheld an earlier lower court ruling that Craigslist was protected against discrimination charges from discriminatory housing ads placed on their service. An .MP3 audio file of the oral arguments on this case can be found HERE.

A SF Chronicle story HERE explains the background and why the Craigslist ads were not protected by housing discrimination law: "Among the housing ads cited as objectionable in the suit were ones that read "NO MINORITIES," "Requirements: Clean Godly Christian Male" and "Only Muslims apply." But the appeals court, upholding a federal district court judge's decision, said Craigslist is only an intermediary and is protected by the Communications Decency Act, which allows interactive Web sites to display others' messages without being responsible for their contents."

The Chronicle story also notes that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco is still considering a similar case concerning a different online ad service.