Fair Housing on the 2027 Real Estate Exam: Protected Classes, Exemptions and HUD's 2026 Proposals

What applies to a 2027 test date

Three things decide what fair housing content you face in 2027. As checked on October 28, 2026:

• Your vendor's outline. Pearson VUE's national salesperson outline, effective April 1, 2025, gives Fair Housing 3 items under Real Estate Practice: equal opportunity in housing, protected classes, fair housing laws, illegal practices, enforcement and penalties, prohibited advertising, HUD and the Americans with Disabilities Act. PSI's outline, which Colorado's Division of Real Estate says PSI implemented on October 1, 2023, has an Antidiscrimination section under Practice of Real Estate (12% of the exam) and a fair housing line under Property Management. Pearson VUE's latest handbooks, including Pennsylvania's from October 2026, still print the 2025 outline, and PSI's bulletins revised in 2025 and 2026 still print the same eleven-area outline. No replacement was announced in the vendor documents and state exam pages checked.
• The Fair Housing Act itself, 42 U.S.C. 3601 and following. Its protected classes, exemptions and prohibited practices are unchanged.
• HUD's regulations at 24 CFR Part 100. The eCFR, current to October 26, 2026, still includes the discriminatory-effects rule at 24 CFR 100.500. HUD's proposals to remove it are not final.

Pearson VUE adds a note worth remembering: "the content on the exam reflects the real estate industry as a whole and may not reflect any ongoing litigation or settlements." If your vendor posts a new outline before your exam, its effective date controls.

The seven protected classes

The Fair Housing Act makes it unlawful to discriminate because of:

The statute's word is "handicap"; the Justice Department's page uses "disability." A separate law, the Civil Rights Act of 1866 at 42 U.S.C. 1982, gives all citizens "the same right … as is enjoyed by white citizens" to buy, sell, lease and hold property. It is one sentence, with none of the Fair Housing Act's exemptions written into it, and the Supreme Court held in Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer Co. (1968) that it "bars all racial discrimination, private as well as public, in the sale or rental of property." So an owner who is exempt under the Fair Housing Act still can't lawfully refuse to sell or rent because of race.

Exemptions and the two limits that are easy to miss

Two limits are easy to miss. First, the single-family exemption disappears as soon as the owner uses a real estate licensee. Second, neither owner exemption covers discriminatory advertising: the Act exempts these owners from section 3604 "other than subsection (c)," which is the advertising ban. A "no children" ad for an exempt owner-occupied fourplex is still unlawful.

Prohibited practices the outlines name

PSI's outline names redlining, blockbusting, steering and disparate treatment. The statute and HUD's regulations describe each:

• Steering. Restricting a person's housing choices by word or conduct because of a protected class, such as discouraging someone from inspecting a home, exaggerating drawbacks, or assigning a person to one section or floor (24 CFR 100.70).
• Blockbusting. For profit, inducing owners to sell or rent by representations about people of a protected class entering the neighborhood. HUD's rule adds that the profit doesn't have to be made, as long as profit was a factor (24 CFR 100.85).
• Misrepresenting availability. Saying a dwelling isn't available for inspection, sale or rental when it is, including to testers (42 U.S.C. 3604(d); 24 CFR 100.80).
• Discriminatory advertising. Any notice, statement or ad that indicates a preference, limitation or discrimination, and even choosing media to keep information from part of the market (24 CFR 100.75).
• Lending and appraisal discrimination. Discrimination by anyone whose business includes making loans or selling, brokering or appraising residential property (42 U.S.C. 3605). Redlining, in Cornell's Legal Information Institute's definition, is the systematic denial of mortgages, insurance and other financial services to residents of certain areas based on race or ethnicity. HUD's rule covers discouraging, denying or limiting loans on a protected basis (24 CFR 100.120).
• Brokerage services. Denying access to a multiple-listing service or brokers' organization (42 U.S.C. 3606).
• Interference and harassment. Coercing, intimidating or threatening anyone exercising fair housing rights (42 U.S.C. 3617), and quid pro quo or hostile environment harassment (24 CFR 100.600).

Disability adds three duties. A landlord must permit reasonable modifications at the tenant's expense and may, where reasonable, condition permission on the tenant agreeing to restore the interior, reasonable wear and tear excepted. Housing providers must make reasonable accommodations in rules and policies; HUD's own example is a no-pets building that must admit a blind applicant's guide dog (24 CFR 100.204). Covered multifamily buildings first occupied after March 13, 1991 must meet design and construction requirements: buildings of four or more units with an elevator, and ground-floor units in other buildings of four or more units.

Enforcement. A person can file a complaint with HUD within one year of the practice or bring a lawsuit within two years. The Justice Department brings pattern-or-practice cases. In HUD administrative cases, the maximum civil penalty per violation is $26,262 for a first violation, $65,653 with one prior violation within 5 years, and $131,308 with two or more within 7 years, as the regulation stood on October 26, 2026. HUD adjusted these amounts for inflation every year from 2017 through 2025. On September 24, 2026 it published a notice that no adjustment is being made for 2026 because the October 2025 price data weren't produced, so the 2025 amounts still apply; a later adjustment could change them before a 2027 test date, so check the current figure if your course quotes an older one.

Applied practice is how these definitions stick. Fair housing sits inside the national area with 78 Real Estate Practice questions planned for launch, each with an explanation.

HUD's 2025 and 2026 actions, dated as the Federal Register shows them

A Federal Register search on October 28, 2026 found no final HUD rule amending 24 CFR Part 100 since 2024. The fair housing office's withdrawal notice itself says that actions that don't comply with the Act's text remain subject to enforcement, and that people can still sue within two years. If HUD finalizes the disparate impact rule before your test date, the regulation will change; whether and when exam items change is up to the vendor, so watch its outline date.

Gender identity and sexual orientation on each outline

This is where the two outlines and current federal policy differ most:

• The federal statute lists "sex" and does not name sexual orientation or gender identity. HUD's February 2021 memos on applying the Bostock decision and Executive Order 13988 to the Act were withdrawn effective September 2025.
• PSI's outline still lists "protections against discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation." All six PSI bulletins checked, revised between 2023 and 2026, include that line, so PSI candidates should expect the topic.
• Pearson VUE's outline doesn't name it.
• State and local law can go further. Washington's law against discrimination lists sexual orientation among its protected classes for real estate transactions and defines it to include gender expression or identity. Your state portion tests your state's list.

The practical approach: know the federal seven cold, learn your state's additions for the state portion, and on a PSI exam expect questions on the protections that line names. For a real situation, the law of your state and your supervising broker decide, not an exam guide.

A Passy practice item on exemptions

An owner lives in one unit of a four-unit building and rents the others herself, without a broker. She posts an online ad for a vacant unit that says "No children." Which statement is correct?

• A. The ad is unlawful even if the rental itself is exempt
• B. The ad is lawful because the building is owner-occupied
• C. The ad is lawful because she isn't using a broker
• D. The ad is unlawful only if a broker places it

Answer: A. The owner-occupied exemption covers the rental decision but not section 3604(c), the advertising ban, and familial status is a protected class. B and C state the exemption without its limit, and D confuses the single-family rule about brokers with the advertising rule.

For the vocabulary behind items like this one, 70 Real Estate Practice flashcards planned for launch sit in the same national area as fair housing.

Preparing fair housing for a 2027 exam

1. Memorize the classes and the exemption table, including what still applies.
2. Drill the look-alike practices: steering restricts a buyer's choices, blockbusting pressures owners to sell, and misrepresentation lies about availability.
3. Recheck your vendor's outline when you book. A new effective date means a new blueprint.
4. Study your state's fair housing law separately for the state portion.

The vendor comparison shows where fair housing sits on each outline, the financing guide covers the Equal Credit Opportunity Act on the lending side, and the free practice questions include a fair housing item. In your final week, Cram's planned final-days review of traps suits limits like the ones above.