What illegal practice involves directing homebuyers to specific areas to maintain or change the character of a neighborhood?

Steering is an illegal practice where real estate agents guide homebuyers towards or away from certain neighborhoods based on their race, ethnicity, or other protected characteristics. This practice aims to influence the demographic makeup of communities and can perpetuate segregation. It violates fair housing laws, which are designed to ensure that individuals have equal access to housing regardless of their background.

The reason steering is considered unethical and illegal is that it undermines the principle of equal opportunity in housing and housing choice. Agents should provide their clients with comprehensive information about all available properties without bias toward specific neighborhoods based on the potential buyer's identity. This practice not only harms individual homebuyers by limiting their options but can also have negative effects on communities as a whole, as it reinforces socio-economic and racial divides.

In contrast, while redlining refers to the practice of denying services to residents of certain areas based on their racial or ethnic composition, blockbusting involves inducing homeowners to sell their properties by instilling fear about changing demographics. Discrimination broadly encompasses any unfair treatment based on a protected characteristic, but steering specifically refers to the manipulative action of directing buyers in a specific manner. Thus, steering accurately captures the essence of the practice described in the question.