Many homes are never sold, but are passed from one generation to the next. When homes are sold, they are first offered informally to other members of the community before being listed, so they are sold before ever being listed. If people locally have enough money (able to do an all-cash deal quickly) and if it's a nice enough place to live that local demand exceeds supply, the majority of homes might be sold without ever being listed.

If the home is listed, it is listed with one of a few local realtors, who can very subtly steer certain buyers towards and away from certain properties. Even if legal lines are crossed, it's very difficult to prove that laws were broken. It happens less often than it used to, but it still happens. US Senator Corey Booker has at various times shared this story about his family that sheds a bit of light on the phenomenon:

https://www.facebook.com/corybooker/photos/id-like-to-share-...

I'm reasonably sure the author is just making this up. As a US citizen you have wide discretion on where you live, even extending to several other small nations that have signed agreements with the US.

If you're renting or selling property, most of the discretion that used to be afforded to buyer's is now outlawed. But it would require someone willing to pursue a case if they felt they were not sold a home because of their race or whatever.

Funny, this comment reads like something Commander Data would say in Star Trek. He would always respond to the letter of what was said, while completely missing the human context.

It fascinates me that someone who read the parent comment could actually think it was about the legal rights of US citizens. You might as well be claiming it was about hummus :)

So what is it about, then?

The practical ability to move somewhere--e.g. to find a home, place an offer, have it accepted, and then peacefully coexist in the neighborhood.

These are all largely up to the discretion of individuals in the community.

They could legally move there, but they would be shunned from the community, and indeed it may be hard for them to find someone willing to even sell them a house.

I'm pretty sure GGP did not mean they literally could not move there. They could move there and be shunned by society if that's what they are into. But why else would you want to be there except for the society?

No, this is real. There are some small old money communities in the Northeast that behave in very unusual ways. I've spent time in one.