Fair housing complaints spiked up 17 percent over the past year, according to a report just out from the National Fair Housing Alliance, a DC-based consortium of more than 220 private, nonprofit fair housing groups around the country. They blame the foreclosure crisis, which has forced a lot of families into the rental market, and the rise of Internet advertising, which has scant gatekeeping regarding the content that's posted.

After I saw alliance's report, I spent about half an hour searching Washington-area for-rent ads on Craigslist just to see what I might find. In just that brief search, I found a few eye-openers--and then called Shanna Smith, president and chief executive of the alliance, for her reactions.

From an ad for a one-bedroom apartment: "Mt. Pleasant also has a great ethnic mix of professionals and young families ... The other three units are occupied by professionals in their early 30s."
Smith said, "Yeah, that is an example. When you talk about young professionals and families, you have to think of everybody who is excluded from that." What about people who work in service industries or building construction, she asked. Would they feel welcome? And she acknowledged that the ad-writer may have thought it was a positive to talk about "a great ethnic mix," she said it's important to realize how some may see ethnic as a code word meaning "oh, that's where African-Americans live so maybe I don't want to live there."

Btw, that was not the only ad I found that referred to "young professionals."

Another example, this one for a one-bedroom basement apartment in Lanham. It referred to a "quiet home," a "quiet neighborhood," and a "peaceful home."
Smith laughed when I read that one. "If you're a family with kids, well, kids aren't quiet," she said. An ad like that would not, by itself, be cause for her organization to bring a fair housing lawsuit, she said, but it could cause them to have trained testers investigate to see if they were treated differently because of race, color, sex, handicap, familial status or national origin--the classifications protected under federal fair housing laws.

How to do the right thing when advertising a property for sale or rent? Talk about the property, not the people. That simple principle should apply whether you place your ad in a print publication or on a free online site.

Smith said anyone who suspects they have been a victim of discriminatory treatment should contact their local nonprofit fair-housing center. In the Washington area, that's the Equal Rights Center, 202-234-3062.

Every other Friday, 1-2 p.m., Post Real Estate Editor Maryann Haggerty and I host a live chat about all things real estate. This is one of the good questions we couldn't cover on Friday.

Question: Hi. I am a buyer with a really great credit score, big down payment, etc. I really want to buy, but what I am finding is that the only properties that are priced fairly, that is, at non-peak prices, are the distressed ones (short sales or foreclosures). I really do not want to go that route because of the time and repair expenses involved. So do you think that if I don’t buy a short sale or a foreclosure, that I am overpaying?

ER: No, I don't. By definition, a distressed sale is one that happens at a discounted price because the seller is in a bad bargaining position. The seller is forced to take the low price because the seller has an urgent need to unload the property quickly. Even banks are distressed sellers when it comes to getting rid of their foreclosure inventory. They're losing money every day they own a home. And buyers, such as yourself, demand a discount when buying the grab-bag that is a foreclosed home.

MH: Try this mental trick: When you think of that low-priced distress sale, don't think of it as a $100,000 house. Think of it as a $100,000 house that needs $50,000 invested in it before you'll let your family live there. OK? Is it worth $150,000 to you? How about $150,000, plus a month of work? What else could you buy for $150,000? How much hassle will you put up with during that month of repairs? (All these numbers are just to be comprehensible -- maybe you're looking at $100,000 foreclosures, maybe $1 million ones.)

If you end up paying $160,000 -- and you can move in on closing day -- that could be a bargain in comparison.

Why should people invest in residential real estate now? For the rent, of course. In this Saturday's Real Estate Section, Alejandro Lazo has a good story on how people who want to buy, fix and rent are reclaiming the word "investor" from the flippers who prevailed during the boom.

What makes a neighborhood neighborly? Also on Saturday, Ann Cameron Siegal reviews some of the the things (hint: they're verbs, not nouns) that do the job. That's a topic I find fascinating. I know in our neighborhood an annual progressive dinner party at Christmastime boosts neighborliness. And the parents who see off the school bus each morning often linger for a chat after the kids are well on their way. But we could do more, especially with an eye toward bringing younger and older residents closer together. A Memorial Day block party may be just the thing!

Don't forget to join Real Estate Editor Maryann Haggerty and me for today's Real Estate Live chat at 1 p.m. You can always post a comment or question early, and doing so actually increases the odds that we'll be able to include your points within the hour-long chat.

The Weekend Poll
It's been awhile, but we have for your voting pleasure the responses to the Complete This Sentence Game, Realtor Edition. Facetious and/or cynical answers were welcomed as the finish to this sentence:

I'm looking forward to the questions that will come up this evening during a panel discussion I have been invited to join at Howard University. It's part of their week-long special on the mortgage crisis and is being led by WAMU radio host Kojo Nnamdi. The broadcast will be live on Howard University Television, WHUT,and WAMU 88.5. at 8 p.m.

All I can promise is that it will be over before the start of Grey's Anatomy.