A Black real estate agent wanted to show a house to Black clients. They ended up handcuffed at gunpoint.

• WOOD-TV reported that a Black real estate agent and clients were handcuffed at a house viewing.
• While the police dept. in Michigan denied race was a factor, the agent was confident it was racial profiling.
• Housing discrimination is prevalent, as seen by Black homeownership rates, under-appraisals, and credit issues, among other things.

Michigan real-estate agent Eric Brown wanted to show his client Roy Thorne, and Thorne's 15-year-old son, a house on August 1. All three of them are Black.

The showing ended with all of them in handcuffs, with guns pointed at them, Grand Rapids' WOOD-TV reported. A neighbor had called the police to report that someone had broken into the house that Brown was authorized to show. Brown told WOOD-TV and The New York Times that it was clearly racial profiling, while Thorne said it was "a little traumatizing."

"If we walked out of there, and I'd been a white lady and her white client and daughter, they would've dropped those guns in a heartbeat," Brown said.

The property was locating in Wyoming, a city near Grand Rapids, which is only 8% Black, according to 2019 census data. A statement from Wyoming's Department of Public Safety says that a resident of the neighborhood called the police over a possible "home invasion." Five police officers on the scene called for all three to leave the house and they handcuffed them before Brown explained that he was a real-estate agent who was authorized to enter the house.

Someone had broken into the same house earlier that week, the statement said, and the neighbor who called the police thought that Brown's car, a Hyundai Genesis, looked like a Mercedes-Benz sedan of the same color that had been parked at the house during the earlier arrest.

The police department denied race had anything to do with it, saying in a statement that while it was "unfortunate" that innocent people had been handcuffed, the officers followed proper procedure.

"After a thorough internal review of the actions of each of our public safety officers who responded to this incident, we have concluded race played no role in our officers' treatment of the individuals who were briefly detained, and our officers responded appropriately," the statement said.

Brown and Thorne said they would consider taking legal action "if suing the city makes some changes."

Insider previously reported that Black Americans lag behind white Americans on homeownership, with Black people being denied mortgages at higher rates than white people, even though many are creditworthy.

They face other obstacles in the housing market that appear to be related to race. For instance, The Indianapolis Star reported in May that when a Black homeowner had her white friend represent her during an appraisal, the value of her home shot up by $149,000.

A 2018 study from Brookings found that homes in Black neighborhoods are undervalued by $48,000 on average, amounting to $156 billion in cumulative losses. Andre Perry, a fellow at the Brookings Institute, told Insider last year, "There's racism in the housing market. There's something going on in the practices and policies of appraisals, real estate agent behavior, and lending."

Thorne told the Times that even though he grew up in Wyoming, it's "100% guaranteed" that he's not buying that house anymore, and he and his son will have to look in a neighborhood where they will feel safer.

"I still have to find a house," he said. "I just know where not to look."