would it be a good idea for a minority family to move to birdsboro?
Shawree: I’m a Realtor located right in West Reading, and we help buyers purchase homes throughout Berks County, including Birdsboro. Whenever clients ask me to recommend a school district or tell them a “good” place to live, I show them where they can find the resources to research this information for themselves, because as you’ve already heard, it is actually against the law for a real estate professional to steer their buyers into specific areas. This is because for far too many years, white people were being shown houses in predominantely white areas, and Hispanic families were being “steered” to mainly Hispanic areas, and of course African American families were being assisted to buy houses in mostly black neighborhoods. I’m sure for the most part this wasn’t done maliciously, but because people were genuinely asking their realtors to help them find houses in neighborhoods where they would feel most comfortable – but unfortunately, what happened looked exactly like racist housing
