June is Pride Month, with a goal of raising awareness and increasing efforts to achieve equal opportunities for LGBTQ+ Americans. This month and every month, Zillow Research is committed to shining a light on housing market challenges and opportunities that disproportionately affect LGBTQ+ home buyers, sellers and renters.
All listings on Zillow display information that helps people see whether for-sale and rental listings they are looking at are in communities where state and local regulations explicitly protect LGBT individuals from discrimination. No federal law explicitly protects LGBT people from housing discrimination. Currently, only 22 U.S. states and the District of Columbia offer statewide laws explicitly prohibiting housing discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and those laws can vary significantly by jurisdiction.
Previous Zillow research found LGBT home buyers seeking a home in a state, county, or city that affords them legal protections from discrimination in housing and public accommodation can expect to pay $127,000 more than the typical home in a market with neither. In addition to paying a premium to live free from discrimination, results from Zillow’s Consumer Housing Trends Report find LGBTQ+ home shoppers face more obstacles during their home and rental search than their cisgender heterosexual counterparts. Successful LGBTQ+ home buyers report making multiple offers and facing at least one mortgage denial more often than cisgender heterosexual home buyers do. LGBTQ+ renters face similar challenges, more often submitting two or more rental applications than cisgender heterosexual renters and more often ending up renting in an area outside of where they initially considered.
A selection of Zillow’s research concerning the LGBTQ+ community is listed below, and you can find all of our research on fair housing and systemic inequalities here. We encourage you to read and share it.