Subject: A Special Background Report On Trends in Industry And Finance 
Date: Published: 4/25/91 (39 lines)
Source: Wall Street Journal. Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc.

    Business Bulletin:
    A Special Background Report
    On Trends in Industry
    And Finance
    ----
    By Pamela Sebastian

    HOME PHOBIA haunts realtors who fear the stigma on
 properties of AIDS victims.
    In the past, it was the specter of ghosts or grisly
 murders that jinxed the sale of an otherwise lovely colonial.
 But lately, "the AIDS issue has risen as a major factor,"
 says William North of the National Association of Realtors.
 Egged on by realty firms, 14 states in three years pass laws
 to declare as immaterial the "stigma" of events like illness,
 homicide and suicide.  Realtors want rules to help head off
 any charges of discrimination by sellers as well as any buyer
 complaints.
    "We were caught between a rock and a hard place," says Bob
 Linn, an Oklahoma City realtor.  An ACLU spokesman notes the
 issue isn't widespread and hasn't been spotlighted partly
 because it mainly arises only after a property owner's death.
 Still, so many New Jersey realtors were concerned, regulators
 issued an advisory.  And New York attorney Marc H. Glick says
 his client's estate was sued over the issue when a couple
 learned the loft they were buying was owned by someone
 afflicted with AIDS.  He says the case "cost us $20,000" in
 legal fees.
    Anti-stigma laws in Florida and Texas were created solely
 to state that AIDS isn't material to a property sale.

[This article is made available here by Dow Jones Co. for the 
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hope that it will be of some help to those who are suffering 
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