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As NAR recognizes Black History Month, we honor the legacy of great black leaders by carrying on their fight to eliminate housing discrimination, expand homeownership, and reduce wealth inequality.

While the long-lasting impact of historical discrimination would make closing the homeownership gap in America challenging enough, fallout from the pandemic is likely to exacerbate that inequality without more urgent leadership from this association, our nation’s policymakers, and our industry partners.

While NAR continues to work alongside the National Association of Real Estate Brokers and the Urban Institute to address the persistent low rates of African-American homeownership, we also recognize that, as the largest trade association in the world, NAR is uniquely positioned to do more to close this gap and bring equity to the nation’s housing industry.

The viability of our 1.4 million members depends on the free, fair, transparent, and efficient transfer of property in this country. Over recent years, NAR has vocally advocated for increased fair housing budgets at HUD, supported “testing” of housing providers as the best tool for uncovering discrimination, and we continue to build off the five-point framework to boost minority homeownership developed in collaboration with NAREB and the Urban Institute.

Beyond what’s taking place in Washington and in state legislatures across the U.S., NAR is also working to ensure Realtors® are active leaders in the fight against bias and discrimination. Last year, we began implementing our fair housing “ACT!” plan, and we’re currently working with our partners to develop a “second ACT” that addresses systemic housing discrimination.

Beyond that, we are building on the member-focused implicit bias training video we released last summer with a classroom course that qualifies for continuing education credit, and continue to promote to members our Fairhaven fair housing simulation training released last fall.

NAR’s influence – and the ability of our 1.4 million members to initiate positive change in this nation – feels more valuable than ever this Black History Month. Each day we must be vigilant in the fight to ensure every potential homeowner can find the home and neighborhood of their dreams. That’s why our goals will remain the same in every month, throughout every transaction, and during every opportunity we have to fight discrimination and promote racial equity in America.

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