Coldwell Banker agrees to $30G settlement over housing discrimination

Real estate brokerage Coldwell Banker Realty has agreed to pay $30,000 and make fair housing training available to its agents to settle claims of illegal housing discrimination that were documented as part of Newsday’s Long Island Divided investigation, Attorney General Letitia James announced Wednesday.

Coldwell Banker will pay the attorney general’s office $20,000 in penalties and to cover the costs of the investigation. It will also pay Suffolk County $10,000 that will be used to conduct fair housing testing.

The probe stemmed from Newsday’s 2019 publication of Long Island Divided, a three-year investigation into unequal treatment by the real estate industry. That series included five Coldwell Banker agents who engaged in conduct such as warning white potential homebuyers about the diverse racial makeup of certain towns while not making the same comments to Black and Hispanic testers.

The attorney general’s office said it found Coldwell Banker agents may have engaged in unlawful discrimination.  The agents “may have subjected prospective homebuyers of color to different requirements than white homebuyers, directed homebuyers of color to homes in neighborhoods where residents predominantly belonged to communities of color and otherwise engaged in biased behavior," James' office said. 

The brokerage is the fourth to agree to a settlement with the attorney general’s office following the announcement in August that Keller Williams Greater Nassau, Keller Williams Realty Elite and Laffey Real Estate had agreed to pay a combined $115,000 over allegations they engaged in discriminatory conduct.

“There is zero tolerance for discrimination of any kind in New York state,” James said in a statement. “My office’s investigation into Coldwell Banker uncovered a persistent pattern of prospective homebuyers receiving different treatment because of their race. Discriminating against people because of race is not just shameful — it is illegal." 

Newsday’s investigative series used paired testers who posed as homebuyers — one white and one minority — to determine whether people were treated differently by real estate agents across 86 fair housing tests. The results showed 40% of the minority testers received disparate treatment compared with white testers. Two independent fair housing experts evaluated the tests and found Black testers were treated differently in 49% of tests, compared with 39% for Hispanic testers and 19% for Asian testers.  

The Department of State, which licenses real estate agents, is conducting a parallel investigation into individual agents’ conduct. Its cases against four of the Coldwell Banker agents are still pending, while one has been withdrawn, according to the department.

As part of the settlement, Coldwell Banker Realty agreed to make fair housing training available to all its agents. It will also provide its agents with a fair housing guide published by the state Division of Human Rights and note that employees or contractors who engage in discriminatory housing practices may be subject to disciplinary action.

Coldwell Banker must also add a complaint form to its website, promptly investigate complaints and share those complaints with the attorney general’s office every six months for the next three years. 

As part of the settlement, Coldwell Banker denied the attorney general’s findings and did not admit liability for its agents’ actions.

“Upholding fair housing remains one of our highest priorities,” a spokeswoman for Coldwell Banker Realty said in a statement to Newsday. “We applaud any effort which builds a future where all people have equal access to and opportunities for housing, no matter their race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or ethnic background.”

 The settlement covers agents' conduct during 2016 and 2017, which was before Century 21 American Homes acquired Coldwell Banker in 2021 to create East Meadow-based Coldwell Banker American Homes. That franchise office was not a party to the settlement and is independently owned and operated. Coldwell Banker Realty is a subsidiary of Anywhere Real Estate.

Laura Harding, president of Syosset-based civil rights nonprofit ERASE Racism, said she applauds the attorney general for reaching the settlement but is concerned about whether fair housing training will lead agents to truly change how they conduct themselves. 

“These settlements are incredibly important because it definitely puts everyone on notice that they will not get away with being discriminatory," Harding said. "You can't erase hundreds of years of discriminatory practice and culture with one settlement. This is just the beginning.”

By Jonathan LaMantia

jonathan.lamantia@newsday.com@jonlamantia

Jonathan LaMantia covers residential real estate and other business news on Long Island. He previously covered the business of health care for Crain's New York Business.