The National Association of Realtors® (NAR) has made housing accessibility for disabled Americans “a nationwide priority,” the association president writes.
More than a quarter of Americans have a disability of some kind. Yet less than 5% of housing in this country is accessible for people with moderately limited mobility. And less than 1% is accessible to those who use wheelchairs.
These are big problems for prospective homebuyers who are disabled. But the market is beginning to change for the better, thanks, in part, to the efforts of real estate agents who are Realtors®.
Everyone deserves access to affordable, livable homes. The Fair Housing Act explicitly prohibits disability-based discrimination in the rental, sale or financing of residential property. The Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits discrimination in other areas, like access to business, jobs and public transportation.
Despite these legal protections, many people with disabilities remain at a disadvantage in the real estate market.
Part of the problem is financial. People with disabilities face systemic hurdles that make saving for a down payment harder. Full-time workers with a disability earn just 87 cents for every dollar that people without disabilities earn, according to the U.S. Census. A person with a severe disability risks losing supplemental Social Security income if they earn more than $2,000 every month.
Securing transportation to an open house or home visit can prove challenging, too. People with disabilities are less likely to have access to a car and more likely to rely on someone else to drive them.
In recent years, members of the National Association of Realtors have made dismantling barriers like these a nationwide priority.
The National Association of Realtors has launched educational initiatives including the At Home with Diversity certification, which is designed to educate NAR members on the subtleties of fair housing laws while promoting best practices for serving clients with disabilities. In addition, the association has worked to teach its members how to more effectively and efficiently ensure that their offices and websites are ADA-compliant.
NAR members are also advocating for policy changes that would make homeownership more attainable for people with disabilities – like the adoption of more accessible building codes and new tax incentives for accessibility renovations.
Some states have already heeded that advocacy by offering loans and grants to help people with disabilities fund a down payment or pay for accessibility modifications. States have also created tax-advantaged savings programs that can empower people with disabilities to set aside money for qualified disability expenses.
Ensuring that people with disabilities have access to this wealth-building tool on equal terms with their non-disabled peers is essential. Making the housing market more equitable – across all demographic categories, including disability status – is not just right but beneficial to all Americans.
Realtors are members of the National Association of Realtors. Kenny Parcell is the 2023 president of the National Association of Realtors and a Realtor from Spanish Fork, Utah. He is broker-owner of Equity Real Estate Utah.