A woman’s refusal to sell her Sacramento, California, home to a President Trump supporter may have cost her more than $100,000.
The woman is selling her two-bedroom, two-bathroom home for less than $500,000 after she listed it in March for $625,000, warning prospective buyers she would not accept offers from those who supported Trump, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
When she posted her original advertisement stating the conditions for buying the house, experts questioned if her approach was illegal under the Fair Housing Act.
The act prohibits sellers from using race, gender, religion, and national origin as considerations when conducting housing transactions, but political affiliation is not one of the protected classifications listed under anti-discrimination laws.
One attorney, however, said the seller’s terms of sale could run afoul of a customer’s First Amendment rights.
“That’s an unlawful contractual term that infringes the freedom of association and first amendment rights,” said attorney Allen Sawyer.
The woman told CBS Sacramento in March she was adamant about her terms of sale to stay true to her “principles.”
“When you’re talking about principles, morals, and ethics, it’s very, very deep,” the woman, who declined to identify herself publicly, said.
The home’s most current listing is under a different realtor and does not mention these conditions of sale, the Sacramento Bee reported.
But despite the woman’s history of providing a political litmus test to prospective buyers, one Sacramento-area real estate blogger said the drop in price was due more to the woman’s high asking price than her political stance.
“[I]t looks like it was priced like it was remodeled when it really wasn’t,” Ryan Lundquist told the Bee. “I’ve never met a buyer that said, ‘I’m only gonna buy if the seller voted for Bernie (Sanders).’ … People just don’t say that.”