Some residential developments here might offer homes that could be described as an empty nesters delight, but empty nesters, or couples whose children have left home, wont see those words used in real estate advertisements.


Thats because such marketing verbiage largely vanished here about nine years ago, after the Northwest Fair Housing Alliance launched a number of complaints against Spokane-area Realtors for using language it viewed as discriminatory.


The Spokane-based nonprofit organization claimed that such terms violated the federal Fair Housing Act, which prohibits discrimination in housing because of race or color, national origin, religion, sex, disabilityor familial status, including children living with parents or legal custodians.


The alliances actions surprised the Spokane Association of Realtors, which had considered itself to be on good terms with the organization and had promoted federal fair housing guidelines actively in its education programs. The actions, though, also ultimately raised awareness and triggered lasting changes in how homes and new developments are marketed here.


You need to be careful, says Rob Higgins, the Realtors associations executive vice president. After that experience, our instruction to people is to describe the property and not the occupant.


Realtors here say theyve adjusted seamlessly to the tighter marketing parameters by doing just that.


I dont think its been a problem at all, says Sabrina Jones-Schroeder, managing broker and co-owner of Exit Real Estate-Jones & Associates, of Spokane. You really can communicate the same message just in describing the property.


For example, using terms such as maintenance-free living to indicate that grounds-maintenance services are provided, is enough to catch the attention of the 55-plus crowd looking for that type of housing, she says.


Yvonne DeBill, an associate broker and veteran real estate agent with Windermere Real Estate/Manito LLC, says, Real estate is always changing. Things are always coming up on what we can and cant do in all kinds of areas, especially fair housing, so were just conditioned.


As for marketing real estate to older adults, most such buyers tend to be looking for smaller, one-level residences, so listing those qualities draw them in, DeBill says.


Not being able to use certain terms that describe potential occupants for the homes has not changed the way I sell real estate, she says. It has just made me more aware (of fair-housing issues), and thats a good thing for all of us.


Residential-property developers, too, have found they can continue to attract a targeted older base of prospective buyers just by incorporating into project designs certain features.


Jim Greenup, owner of Greenup Development Co., Spokane, and an agent with Windermere Real Estate/North Wall Inc., says thats what hes doing with a 57-lot planned unit development called Vista Ridge that he intends to develop on the south rim of Five Mile Prairie.


Vista Ridge will include smaller lots and high-quality, rancher-style homes with few or no stairs, wide hallways, and covered front porches, which he believes help to create more of an engaging time as people walk around the neighborhoods, Greenup says. Also, he says, yard care will be provided, and the development will be set up, with internal nature trails and common areas.


Additionally, Greenup says he has been approved to include up to 15 accessory dwellings in the development that could be used by residents to provide housing for elderly relatives.


Federal law provides a couple of conditions under which housing for older people can be exempted from the prohibition against familial status discrimination. One such condition is that at least 80 percent of the occupied units in a development have at least one person who is 55 or older living in them.


A new development here thats operating under that exemption is Wandermere Estates, an upscale 190-lot gated community thats being developed just south of Wandermere Golf Course.


Jayme Guy, a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker Northwest Group, of Spokane, who is working with listing agent Allen Reilley in marketing the lots at Wandermere Estates, says families with children absolutely are allowed to live there. Such families, though, might not find that environment to be a good fit for them because of protective covenants that prohibit things such as fencing and play equipment in yards and that restrict the presence of animals, she says.


Marley Eichstaedt, who became executive director for the Northwest Fair Housing Alliance late last month, is unfamiliar with the earlier conflict between that organization and Realtors here. She says staff members tell her, though, that they still see some fair-housing law violations based on familial status, but that the violations are a little more subtle than they once were.


Staff members impressions are that real estate agents have become a little more sophisticated about how they steer people, Eichstaedt says.


The alliance is a small organization, but has legal standing with the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development, which gives it grant money and has broad enforcement latitude in fair-housing matters.


Part of what contributed to the controversy in 1996 was the suggestion by the alliances director that she would withdraw the complaints it had filed if the accused would pay the organization up to several hundred dollars apiece to cover the cost of educational materials and a seminar on the topic. Realtors also complained that the agency made no attempt to warn them of the language it found objectionable, or to resolve the matter amicably, before filing the complaints. Furthermore, they felt unsure about how to proceed, since federal housing law on discriminatory language was vague, and left open to interpretation what words were unacceptable.


The uproar later faded when the Northwest Fair Housing Alliance withdrew most of its complaints and partnered with the Realtors association here to sponsor a fair housing workshop.