Understanding new fair housing laws: What changed and what didn’t

Written by Samantha SheltonNMLS 1647301Updated October 2026

The most recent federal change to fair housing rules did not touch the characteristics the law protects. HUD’s interim final rule “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Revisions,” published at 90 FR 11020 on March 3, 2025 and effective April 2, 2025, rewrote how communities that accept HUD grant money certify their fair housing efforts, amending 24 CFR parts 5, 91, 92, 570, 574, 576 and 903.

Neighbors greeting each other on a Midwestern street, illustrating fair housing law protections

It did not amend the part of the law that applies to you. The Fair Housing Act still makes it unlawful to discriminate in a mortgage, an appraisal or a home sale because of race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status or national origin, and Regulation B still lists the bases a lender may not use.

One correction first: “Equity Plans” were never a requirement. They appeared in a HUD proposed rule published February 9, 2023 at 88 FR 8516, which HUD withdrew on January 16, 2025 without finalizing. A proposal is not law. Learn what changed, which protections are written into statute, and how the appraisal-bias rules tightened in 2024 and 2025.

Key takeaways:

Seven protected characteristics, still seven: Under 42 U.S.C. § 3605, discrimination in a residential real-estate-related transaction because of race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status or national origin is unlawful, and the 2025 rule amended none of it.
One rule changed, effective April 2, 2025: HUD’s interim final rule at 90 FR 11020 revised the grantee certification standard at 24 CFR 5.150 and 5.151 and removed 24 CFR 5.152, an obligation on cities and states, not a protection for individuals.
One year to file, two to sue: 42 U.S.C. § 3610(a)(1)(A)(i) gives you one year to complain to HUD and 42 U.S.C. § 3613(a)(1)(A) gives you two years to sue, deadlines the 2025 rule left untouched.

What are the fair housing laws that protect mortgage borrowers?

Three federal laws do the work, and they overlap on purpose. The Fair Housing Act covers the housing transaction, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act covers the credit decision, and the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act creates the data trail regulators use to find patterns the first two would miss.

Fair Housing Act, 1968: Title VIII of Pub. L. 90-284, April 11, 1968. Sex was added by Pub. L. 93-383 in 1974; disability and familial status by Pub. L. 100-430 on September 13, 1988. Section 3605 reaches lending and “the selling, brokering, or appraising of residential real property.”
ECOA and Regulation B: Regulation B defines “prohibited basis” at 12 CFR 1002.2(z), and carries bases the Fair Housing Act does not: marital status, age, public assistance income and the good-faith exercise of a Consumer Credit Protection Act right.
HMDA, 1975: Regulation C, 12 CFR part 1003, makes lenders report loan-level mortgage data publicly. The CFPB says one purpose is to shed light on lending patterns that could be discriminatory. HMDA prohibits nothing. It measures.

Law	Protected characteristics, stated exactly
Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 3604, 3605	Race, color, religion, sex, handicap (disability), familial status, national origin
ECOA / Regulation B, 12 CFR 1002.2(z)	Race, color, religion, national origin, sex, marital status, age (with capacity to contract); income from a public assistance program; good-faith exercise of a Consumer Credit Protection Act right
HMDA / Regulation C, 12 CFR part 1003	Not a prohibition; collects ethnicity, race, sex and age for monitoring

What actually changed in 2025: HUD’s AFFH interim final rule

The change was to a planning duty between HUD and its grantees, not to any right you hold as a buyer. Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing, or AFFH, is the Fair Housing Act’s directive that HUD run its programs so they actively promote fair housing, and the cities, states and housing agencies taking HUD money certify they are doing it. Docket FR-6519-I-01 reset what that certification must show.

The AFFH certification	Before April 2, 2025	Under 90 FR 11020
Certification standard	Tied to 24 CFR 5.150 to 5.152	Sufficient if the participant took “any action that is rationally related to promoting one or more attributes of fair housing”
24 CFR 5.152	In effect	Removed and reserved
24 CFR 91.205(b)(2), 91.305(b)(2)	Required comparison of disproportionately greater need by racial and ethnic group	Removed and reserved
Your protections at 42 U.S.C. §§ 3604, 3605	In effect	Unchanged, not amended by this rule

Two details matter more than the headline. First, the rule’s summary says it “does not, however, reinstate the obligation to conduct an Analysis of Impediments or mandate any specific fair housing planning mechanism,” and that participants “must continue to affirmatively further fair housing as and to the extent required by the Fair Housing Act.” The statutory duty survives; the paperwork that proved it does not.

Second, this is still an interim final rule. It took effect while HUD collected comments, and the comment period closed May 9, 2025. An interim final rule is enforceable the day it takes effect, but HUD can revise it in a final rule, which is why naming the docket ages better than naming a year.

What did not change, and where problems show up in a file

Nothing in the 2025 rule reaches the conduct rules that bind your lender, appraiser or agent. Those sit in the statute and in Regulation B, and a grantee-certification rule cannot move them.¹ Done because of a protected characteristic, these remain unlawful:

Refusing the transaction: Declining to sell, rent, negotiate, or make or purchase a loan, under 42 U.S.C. §§ 3604(a) and 3605(a).
Changing the terms: Different pricing, down payment expectations, documentation demands or conditions on the same file, under §§ 3604(b) and 3605(a).
Steering, blockbusting and advertising: Saying a home is unavailable when it is, inducing a sale by claiming the neighborhood is changing, or publishing a notice indicating a preference, under §§ 3604(c), (d) and (e).

Three moments in a real file carry the concrete red flags. At application, 12 CFR 1002.9(a)(1) gives the creditor 30 days after a completed application to notify you of action taken, and an adverse action notice must give the specific reasons or tell you how to request them; a verbal “you won’t qualify” with nothing in writing is the flag. On the demographic questions, 12 CFR 1002.13 requires the lender to ask your ethnicity, race, sex, marital status and age, and you may decline, in which case an in-person creditor notes ethnicity, race and sex by visual observation or surname; the purpose is monitoring compliance, so anyone saying the answers affect approval is the flag. On the appraisal, an appraisal that leans on outdated or dissimilar comparable sales, or that comments on the characteristics of a protected class, is the flag. Note that the FHA mortgagee letter that had codified those points, ML 2024-07, was rescinded effective March 19, 2025, so ask your lender what reconsideration-of-value process it runs rather than assuming a federal one applies.

Two notes on that. Because ECOA covers marital status and the Fair Housing Act does not, unmarried co-borrowers gain a protection at the credit-decision stage the housing statute alone would not supply; see buying a home with a partner and the legal considerations involved. And a rate difference alone proves nothing, since quotes move with lender, lock period, credit tier and day. The Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey is the standard weekly reference for averages, and our mortgage rates and market guide explains what legitimately moves a quote. Side-by-side quotes on one scenario are how you tell the difference.

The appraisal-bias rules that did change, with dates

Several dated instruments moved between 2024 and 2025, all on the valuation side of the file. This is where “new fair housing laws” is closest to accurate, but read the dates, because one of them was rescinded.

HUD Mortgagee Letter 2024-07, “Appraisal Review and Reconsideration of Value Updates,” issued May 1, 2024, had to be implemented for FHA case numbers assigned on or after September 2, 2024.² It built a borrower-initiated reconsideration of value process: a required plain-language disclosure at application and again at appraisal delivery, up to five alternative comparable sales, one borrower-initiated request per appraisal, no cost charged to the borrower, resolution before closing, and an expanded definition of material deficiency that reached statements about protected-class characteristics.

Then HUD took it back. Mortgagee Letter 2025-08, “Rescinding Multiple Appraisal Policy Related Mortgagee Letters,” dated March 19, 2025 and effective immediately, rescinded ML 2024-07 along with ML 2024-16 and ML 2021-27, restoring the previous policy. So the borrower-initiated reconsideration mechanics above are history, not a current FHA requirement, and any article still describing them as your right on an FHA file is out of date by more than a year. This is the exact reason to check whether a later letter has rescinded the one you are reading. Lenders may still run a reconsideration process of their own; it is now a lender practice, not an FHA rule.

The Interagency Guidance on Reconsiderations of Value of Residential Real Estate Valuations was issued as final guidance in 2024 by the Federal Reserve Board, CFPB, FDIC, NCUA and OCC, under dockets including OCC-2023-0007 and CFPB-2023-0033. It describes reconsideration processes that mitigate discrimination risk in residential valuations. Read the word carefully: guidance shapes examinations; it does not create a borrower right.

The AVM quality control rule is a rule. Six agencies published “Quality Control Standards for Automated Valuation Models” at 89 FR 64538 on August 7, 2024, effective October 1, 2025. Institutions using automated valuation models in covered credit decisions must adopt policies, procedures and control systems designed to ensure compliance with applicable nondiscrimination laws. The algorithm is now inside the fair lending perimeter.

Separately, 12 CFR 1002.14 has required since 2014 that a creditor give you a free copy of each appraisal promptly upon completion, or three business days before consummation, whichever is earlier.

How to check whether a fair housing rule actually changed

Most of what circulates as a “new fair housing law” is a bill that was introduced, a rule that was proposed, or a request for comment. None of those are law. Two checks separate real from rumored:

Find the instrument: A real federal change carries a Federal Register citation like 90 FR 11020, a docket number like FR-6519-I-01, or a public law number. If nobody can name one, there is no change to describe.
Read the action line: “Proposed rule” and “request for comment” mean nothing took effect; “final rule” and “interim final rule” mean it did, on the stated effective date. Then check supersession, since a mortgagee letter can override handbook text still posted, and check your state, since federal law is the floor.

HUD publishes HUD’s fair housing complaint process, the Department of Justice maintains a summary of the Fair Housing Act at the Department of Justice, and legal publishers offer a plain-language fair housing law overview. We track the mortgage-side changes in our industry updates and rules hub.

What Michigan buyers should know

Michigan protects more characteristics than federal law does, and its housing list changed twice since 2024, with a dated public act behind each.

Ten characteristics, not seven: The Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, 1976 PA 453, bars discrimination in a real estate transaction at MCL 37.2502(1) on the basis of religion, race, color, national origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, familial status, or marital status. Subsection (1)(h) reaches “the brokering or appraising of real property,” and MCL 37.2504 applies the same ten to anyone taking your financing application.
Sexual orientation and gender identity, effective February 13, 2024: 2023 PA 6 added “sexual orientation, gender identity or expression” to Article 5. The bill was signed in March 2023; the effective date is what governs.
Source of income for renters, effective April 2, 2025: 2024 PA 180 added MCL 37.2502(3), barring a landlord from denying a tenancy or changing terms based on a tenant’s source of income, including a rent voucher. It exempts landlords with fewer than 5 rental units and applies to rentals, not purchases.
Disability sits in a different statute: Elliott-Larsen’s Article 5 list omits disability; Michigan handles it through the Persons with Disabilities Civil Rights Act, 1976 PA 220, MCL 37.1101 to 37.1607. Federal protection under 42 U.S.C. § 3604(f) applies regardless.
Real penalties: MCL 37.2605(2)(k) authorizes civil fines for an Article 5 violation of up to $10,000 for a first violation, $25,000 for a second within 5 years, and $50,000 for two or more within 7 years, on top of damages and attorney fees.

Michigan complaints go to the Michigan Department of Civil Rights, and you can file with HUD as well; confirm the state agency’s filing window, since it is set administratively rather than in the statute.

How Align keeps up with the rules

Program rules, loan limits and disclosure requirements change every year. Samantha tracks them so your file is built on the rules in force when you apply, not last year's.

One rule worth knowing: Align is paid by the lender, not by a fee you pay us, and federal rules bar a broker's pay from changing with your rate or fees. A broker earns the same on your loan whether your rate is higher or lower.

Sources: Regulation Z, 12 CFR 1026.36(d).

FAQ: New fair housing laws

Here are answers to common questions about new fair housing laws.

What does Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing mean?

Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing is the Fair Housing Act obligation for HUD and its grantees to do more than avoid discrimination, taking active steps to promote fair housing. HUD’s 2025 interim final rule kept the certification but set a lower bar: it is sufficient if the grantee took any action rationally related to promoting one or more attributes of fair housing. It is a duty on cities and states, not a right you enforce personally.

Am I still protected from housing discrimination?

Yes. The 2025 rule amended HUD’s grantee planning and certification regulations, not the statutory prohibitions. It remains unlawful under 42 U.S.C. §§ 3604 and 3605 to refuse to sell, rent or lend, or to change terms and conditions, because of race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status or national origin.

How do I report housing discrimination?

File with HUD’s Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, which accepts complaints online, by phone and by mail. You have one year from when the practice occurred or terminated under 42 U.S.C. § 3610(a)(1)(A)(i), and HUD is directed to finish investigating within 100 days unless that is impracticable. You may also sue within two years under 42 U.S.C. § 3613(a)(1)(A). Document dates, names and written communications first.

Do state fair housing laws add protections?

Often, yes. Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act covers ten characteristics in real estate transactions at MCL 37.2502, adding age, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression and marital status to the federal seven, and 2024 PA 180 added source-of-income protection for most rental units effective April 2, 2025. Check the statute and any local ordinance where you’re buying.

The bottom line on new fair housing laws

The 2025 change was real but narrow. HUD’s interim final rule at 90 FR 11020, effective April 2, 2025, loosened what a city or state must show to certify it is affirmatively furthering fair housing and removed 24 CFR 5.152. It did not amend 42 U.S.C. §§ 3604 or 3605, so the same seven characteristics are protected in lending, brokering and appraising as before, and Regulation B’s prohibited bases at 12 CFR 1002.2(z) are unchanged. You still have one year to file with HUD and two years to sue. Valuation is the one area with a live new rule: the interagency AVM quality control standards at 89 FR 64538, effective October 1, 2025. FHA’s own appraisal-bias letter, ML 2024-07, went the other way, rescinded by ML 2025-08 on March 19, 2025. And in Michigan, Elliott-Larsen protects ten characteristics, not seven.

If you’re ready to compare offers rather than accept one, talk to Align Lending. We’ll shop your scenario across our lender network and show you the numbers side by side. Call 248-506-5727 or start online.

Footnotes:

1. Align Lending is not acting on behalf of or at the direction of FHA or HUD. References to FHA programs, HUD Mortgagee Letters and HUD Handbook 4000.1 are informational; those programs are administered by HUD and their requirements are set and changed independently of any lender or broker. Return to text.

2. This article is for informational purposes only and is not intended to provide legal advice. Fair housing and fair lending statutes, regulations and agency guidance are summarized here in general terms and are applied to specific facts by courts and agencies; if you believe you have experienced discrimination, consult a qualified attorney or a fair housing agency about your situation. Return to text.

Sources: Interim final rule “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Revisions,” 90 FR 11020, published March 3, 2025, effective April 2, 2025, docket FR-6519-I-01, RIN 2529-AB08, amending 24 CFR parts 5, 91, 92, 570, 574, 576 and 903, removing and reserving 24 CFR 5.152 and 24 CFR 91.205(b)(2) and 91.305(b)(2), revising the certification standard at 24 CFR 5.150 and 5.151, and stating it does not reinstate the Analysis of Impediments or mandate any specific fair housing planning mechanism; comment period extended to May 9, 2025 by the notice published May 7, 2025 at 90 FR 19262. Withdrawal of the proposed rule “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing,” published February 9, 2023 at 88 FR 8516, by HUD notice published January 16, 2025, docket FR-6250-N-03, RIN 2529-AB05. Protected characteristics and covered transactions, 42 U.S.C. §§ 3604 and 3605, Title VIII of Pub. L. 90-284 (April 11, 1968), as amended by Pub. L. 93-383 (1974) and Pub. L. 100-430 (September 13, 1988). One-year administrative complaint deadline and 100-day investigation period, 42 U.S.C. § 3610(a)(1)(A)(i) and (a)(1)(B)(iv); two-year private civil action deadline, 42 U.S.C. § 3613(a)(1)(A). Definition of “prohibited basis,” 12 CFR 1002.2(z); notification within 30 days and adverse action notice contents, 12 CFR 1002.9(a)(1) and (a)(2); collection of ethnicity, race, sex, marital status and age and the visual-observation-or-surname rule, 12 CFR 1002.13(a), (b) and (c); appraisal copy timing, no-charge rule and third-business-day notice, 12 CFR 1002.14(a). HMDA implemented by Regulation C, 12 CFR part 1003, its purpose including illuminating potentially discriminatory lending patterns, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau HMDA program page, and reported data points including ethnicity, race, sex and age, 12 CFR 1003.4(a)(10). Borrower-initiated reconsideration of value requirements, disclosure at application and appraisal delivery, five-comparable and one-request limits, prohibition on charging the borrower, pre-closing resolution, expanded material-deficiency definition and state appraiser regulatory agency reporting, HUD Mortgagee Letter 2024-07, “Appraisal Review and Reconsideration of Value Updates,” dated May 1, 2024, required for FHA case numbers assigned on or after September 2, 2024. Rescission of ML 2024-07, ML 2024-16 and ML 2021-27 to restore previous policy, effective immediately, HUD Mortgagee Letter 2025-08, “Rescinding Multiple Appraisal Policy Related Mortgagee Letters,” March 19, 2025. Final interagency guidance on reconsiderations of value, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, CFPB, FDIC, NCUA and OCC, dockets OCC-2023-0007, OP-1809, RIN 3064-ZA36, NCUA-2023-0061 and CFPB-2023-0033. Quality control standards for automated valuation models, including policies to ensure compliance with applicable nondiscrimination laws, 89 FR 64538, published August 7, 2024, effective October 1, 2025. Michigan protected characteristics in real estate transactions and in financing, MCL 37.2502 and MCL 37.2504, Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, 1976 PA 453, as amended by 2023 PA 6 (effective February 13, 2024) and 2024 PA 180 (effective April 2, 2025); the fewer-than-5-rental-unit exemption at MCL 37.2502(4); civil fine amounts at MCL 37.2605(2)(k); Michigan Persons with Disabilities Civil Rights Act, 1976 PA 220, MCL 37.1101 to 37.1607; Michigan Compiled Laws as rendered by the Michigan Legislature, complete through PA 91 of 2026.

This article is for informational purposes only and is not intended to provide legal, financial, or tax advice. Statutes, regulations and agency guidance change, and their application depends on the specific facts of your situation; confirm current requirements with the issuing agency and consult a qualified professional. Align Lending is an independent Michigan mortgage broker, NMLS #2041154. Equal Housing Opportunity.