Exposure, Experience and Attitudes: Realtors and Open Occupancy

Abstract

achieve open occupancy in housing, that is, a housing market free of restrictions based on race, religion or national origin. Thus, a better understanding of factors affecting the attitudes and practices of the real estate community can be helpful in developing and evaluating such efforts realistically. This article reports on a study aimed at increasing understanding in this area. The study is based on an analysis of the responses of 164 members of the Greater Pittsburgh Board of Realtors who replied to a mail survey conducted by the Pittsburgh Commission on Human Relations in 1965.1 The original purpose of the survey was to assess current realtor sentiment toward fair housing questions in general and toward the fair housing laws of the City of Pittsburgh and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in particular. The present study, however, attempts to analyze systematically the relationships between: (1) the degree of exposure of real estate brokers to a milieu in which racial integration is facilitated by the presence of a substantial black minority, by some degree of existing racial integration in the life of the community, and by a fair housing law that prohibits brokers from racial discrimination in any of their business dealings; (2) the attitudes of brokers toward fair housing laws, open occupan-