Housing Company Pulls Anne Frank, Harriet Tubman Layouts After Backlash

From the outside, the adobe-style ranch house on the outskirts of Albuquerque appears to be like any other three-bedroom house. But its designers took inspiration from an unusual source.

In fact, the person for whom the design is named probably never stepped foot in New Mexico at all.

“Just like Harriet Tubman, the icon of American courage and freedom, this home stands out amongst the crowd,” read a home listing on Zillow, highlighting the home’s “‘entertainers’ kitchen with a bar top between the kitchen and the great room.”

The listing quickly found itself attracting the scrutiny of Zillow’s social media watchers, who criticized Abrazo Homes, a production homebuilder in Albuquerque, for tastelessly commercializing the revered abolitionist. The company also named a home layout after Anne Frank, who hid from Nazis in an annex in the Netherlands before being killed in a concentration camp.

The designs appear to have been available for years, but they did not pique interest on social media until this week.

Experts have said that realtors are turning to new techniques to drum up business in a cooling housing market.

Yildiray Yildirim, the chairman of the real estate department at Baruch College in New York, said that he had seen real estate marketing reference celebrity names before but not the historical figures used by Abrazo Homes. He described the choice as a “strange” but “creative” way to try and bring in new business.

The 1,500-square-foot house was listed for $370,475 on Dec. 29, according to the Zillow post, which has since been deleted but is still available on the Wayback Machine. The post showed nearly 80,000 page views on Zillow as of Monday night (comparable listings in the area had been viewed between 75 and 150 times).

In a statement to The New York Times, Brian McCarthy, a co-founder of Abrazo Homes, said the company decided to name floor plans after influential women when it was founded 14 years ago to “acknowledge their place in history.”

“We recognize that the language used in the plan description is insufficient and understand how it might come across as insensitive and lacking awareness,” Mr. McCarthy said in an email to The Times on Tuesday. “It’s unfortunate that this oversight has diminished our sincere efforts to pay homage to some of the most remarkable women in history.”

Abrazo Homes marketing materials have been updated to “more accurately communicate our intent to honor these women,” he said.

The company offered multiple designs that were named for famous women: Audrey Hepburn, Coco Chanel, Amelia Earhart, Margaret Thatcher, Frida Kahlo and the architect Zaha Hadid, among others.

The Anne Frank design could be customized into a three- or four-bedroom home.

“In her diary, Anne Frank discussed her view of the seasonally changing tree,” read a description of the design on the Abrazo Homes website. “In honor of her, we have designed our Anne plan to maximize the view, we feel would be suitable for Anne herself.”

The page appeared to have been edited to remove references to Anne Frank on Tuesday.

The Harriet house included a covered patio, great room, kitchen, dining room and two-car garage, as well as a “a spacious walk-in closet” and the option to add vaulted ceilings in the great room. According to the company, the design won the Buyer’s Choice Award in the Parade of Homes, a design award program by the Home Builders Association of Central New Mexico.

In addition to honoring accomplished women in history, Abrazo Homes also has several house designs named after types of beer — stout, I.P.A. and pilsner.

Eric Lewin, a real estate agent in the Albuquerque area, said the local housing trends followed similar patterns seen across the United States over the past few years — a “crazy boom” and subsequently, as interest rates rose, a slowdown.

“People got used to being able to sell a house the first weekend it showed,” he said. “Now, it takes between 25 and 30 days on average.”

Mr. Lewin said there was strong demand for three-bedroom, two-bathroom houses in the area as well as an equally a large demand for lower-income housing.

“We’re just not seeing them be built,” he said. “The average income of Albuquerque can’t afford the average price of homes.”

According to a recent report by the National Association of Realtors, the median home price in Albuquerque is around $339,500. The median household income in 2022 was $61,503, according to the Census Bureau.