Four names for four different wrongs
Most prohibited-conduct questions describe a scene and ask for the right label. Each label turns on who is acted upon and how.
Blockbusting
42 U.S.C. 3604(e) prohibits inducing or attempting to induce any person to sell or rent a dwelling, for profit, by representations about the entry of persons of a particular protected class into the neighborhood. See also 24 CFR 100.85.
A licensee who phones owners saying minority families have bought nearby, values will drop, so list now, is blockbusting: panic peddling aimed at existing owners to generate listings.
Steering
Steering channels a prospect's housing choices toward or away from areas. That is the difference from blockbusting: steering works on the buyer or renter, blockbusting on the current owner.
24 CFR 100.70 treats subjective, demographic-flavored answers about neighborhoods and schools as steering. When a buyer asks whether the schools are good and whether this is a good neighborhood "for a family like mine," refer the buyer to objective third-party sources such as the school district, census data, and the police department.
- A personal opinion about the residents is exactly what the regulation forbids, even a favorable one.
- Reciting demographic makeup still communicates that a person would or would not be compatible with existing residents, also listed as steering.
- Refusing to show homes in the area is worse, because refusing to show or deal because of a protected class is itself a violation.
Redlining
Redlining involves denying loans, appraisals, or insurance, or varying their terms, based on neighborhood composition. If no lender, insurer, or credit decision appears in the facts, it is not redlining.
Treatment versus impact
Disparate treatment requires proof of discriminatory intent; disparate impact does not. Disparate impact under 24 CFR 100.500 targets a facially neutral practice that causes or predictably causes a discriminatory effect, as confirmed in Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. Inclusive Communities Project, 576 U.S. 519 (2015). Reversing that distinction is the single most common error here.