Fair Housing
Every home is offered without discrimination. Here is what the law protects in New Mexico, and what to do if someone breaks it.
Updated October 2026
Who is protected
Two laws stack here. The federal Fair Housing Act applies everywhere in the country. The New Mexico Human Rights Act adds more on top of it. Together they protect race or color, national origin or ancestry, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, familial status (children in the home), disability, serious medical condition, spousal affiliation, and age. Where the two laws overlap you get the stronger of the two.
Housing
Nobody may refuse to sell or rent to you, quote you different terms or prices, steer you toward or away from a neighborhood, lie to you about whether a home is available, or evict you because of any of the protected characteristics above. That applies to the seller, the landlord, the property manager, and to us.
Lending and insurance
The same list applies to a mortgage: whether you are approved, the rate and terms you are quoted, how your home is appraised, and whether you can get homeowner’s insurance.
Disability, specifically
You may make reasonable modifications to a home at your own expense so you can use it, and a landlord or HOA must make reasonable exceptions to its rules where that is what it takes for you to have equal use of the place. A service or assistance animal is not a pet, and a no pets rule does not reach it.
If it happens to you
HUD, the federal agency: file at hud.gov/fairhousing or call 1-800-669-9777. You have one year from the incident.
New Mexico Human Rights Bureau, part of the state Workforce Solutions Department: (505) 827-6838. The state deadline is shorter than the federal one, so do not wait on it.
New Mexico Real Estate Commission, if the person involved is a licensed broker: (505) 476-4622.
Filing is free. You do not need a lawyer to start, and nobody may retaliate against you for filing.
What we do about it
We do business in accordance with the letter and the spirit of United States policy for fair housing. We show you every home that fits what you told us you want and can afford, and we do not answer questions about the make up of a neighborhood’s residents, because answering them is steering. If anything here happens while you are working with us, tell Jon at (575) 312-9897 or Qualifying Broker Manny Patino at (575) 520-7604.
Sources
Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. sections 3601 to 3619. New Mexico Human Rights Act, NMSA 1978 sections 28-1-1 to 28-1-15. This page is a plain language summary, not legal advice; the statutes themselves control.
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