Fair housing and neighborhood questions: a guide for brokers

Buyers ask your agents about crime, schools, flood risk and pollution every week. How each agent answers is a fair housing question for the whole office. Here's how to give your team a consistent, documented way to respond.

Why this is a broker issue

As the supervising broker, you're responsible for how your agents handle these conversations. When ten agents answer the same question ten different ways, from memory or a quick search, it's hard to show that every client was treated the same. A consistent approach protects your clients, your agents and your license.

What changed in 2026

In April 2026, HUD issued a letter saying agents may share crime and school information with clients when it's shared consistently and without discriminatory intent. (HUD's April 2026 letter) In June 2026, NAR published FAQs on how members can apply it. (NAR's FAQs) The direction is clear: factual, sourced information, offered the same way to every client, rather than opinions about who lives in an area.

A simple office policy

Point clients to sources, not opinions. Agents share public data and let clients decide.
Give every client the same information for the same areas, whoever they are.
Never describe an area by who lives there. Demographic figures can be shared as facts, without calling them better or worse.
Avoid words like safe, unsafe, good or bad neighborhood. Describe what the data shows.
Keep a record of what was shared and when.

How Consilium Compare fits

Consilium Compare gives every agent in your office a branded page where clients compare any two ZIP codes side by side: reported crime, environmental sites and air quality, FEMA flood zones, hospitals and schools, from public sources. Every client sees the same report for the same ZIPs, and demographic figures never carry a better or worse label. Your agents get a consistent answer to the questions clients ask, and you get an office dashboard showing how it's used.

FAQ

Can my agents talk about crime and schools at all?

HUD's April 2026 letter says they can share this information when it's provided consistently and without discriminatory intent. Sharing sourced data the same way with every client is the safest approach.

Is it enough to tell clients to look it up themselves?

Many offices do. Giving clients one consistent, sourced report is often more helpful and easier to document.

Does Consilium Compare rate neighborhoods?

It shows Crime and Environmental Concern Scores on a 0 to 10 scale built from public data, alongside the underlying facts. It never rates who lives in an area.

Give your whole office a consistent answer

From $35 per agent per month. Price on the page, no sales call. 14-day free trial.

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General information, not legal advice. Published October 16, 2026.