Fair Housing words to avoid in listings, and what's fine

How to read the verdicts

• Avoid Avoid means an explicit preference or limitation, or a phrase on the avoid side of the cited word lists. This is the risk end of the scale, not a style choice.
• Caution Caution means the phrase is on the caution side of the cited lists, or describes people in a way that usually reads as a preference. Many agents still use some of these, but describing the property instead is the safer move.
• Depends Depends means it's fine or not depending on how it's used. Read the reason, then decide for your sentence.
• Minor Minor means it's usually fine and worth a second look. Treat it as a style question more than a legal one.
• OK OK means a cited source treats it as acceptable. Any alternative shown is a house-style preference some offices or MLSs ask for, not a legal requirement.

There's no official list

There's no single official list. The federal rule bans ads that indicate a preference, limitation or discrimination based on a protected class, and boards, MLSs and press associations publish their own word lists to put that into practice. They mostly agree, and where they don't, the phrase page says so.

• Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. § 3604(c)
• HUD advertising regulation, 24 CFR § 100.75

About the 1995 HUD memo

HUD no longer posts the 1995 memo on its website. Oregon REALTORS reported in April 2026 that HUD removed it without notice, and HUD withdrew its April 2024 digital-advertising guidance in September 2025. The Fair Housing Act and HUD's advertising regulation (24 CFR § 100.75) didn't change. Boards and MLS word lists still lean on the memo, which is why it's still cited here, as history and as the clearest explanation of how ads are read.

• Oregon REALTORS: Fair housing compliance after the guidance reset (Apr. 17, 2026)
• LeadingAge: HUD withdraws fair housing guidance documents (Sept. 17, 2025 memo)