CityNews 95.7 – wrapping up 2021! | December 24, 2021

Clinton Wilkins was on CityNews 95.7 with Todd Veinotte on Christmas Eve to have one last chat about all things mortgages in 2021. The guys reflect on the 2021 market, and even discuss some predictions for what is to come in 2022, Oh, and you can also find out about Clinton’s favourite holiday tradition. Happy holidays and happy New Year!

Clinton Wilkins & Todd Veinotte on CityNews 95.7: Wrapping up 2021!

Don’t feel like watching the video? Check out the transcript below.

Transcript:

Wrapping up 2021 on CityNews 95.7

Todd Veinotte: [00:00:00.21] Now, when I was planning our last show of the year, that is 2021 because again, we’re off next week. For those of you who don’t know, I thought, who would I like to chat with? Well, of course, Cecil Wright. We’re going to wrap up, we’re going to do a sports wrap with Cecil. But who would else would I like to chat with in that last half hour? And I thought, I think it’d be Clinton Wilkins would be appropriate because we’ve had many conversations with Clinton Wilkins.

He’s just an excellent human being, quite honestly. He’s our mortgage guru and I work closely with him. We do a show, of course, that airs once a month on Saturday and Sunday here on CityNews 95.7 and just again, a good quality guy. And so, Clinton, welcome to the show. I appreciate you very much.

Clinton Wilkins: [00:00:43.89] You know what? I appreciate you too. You know there’s nothing more I’d rather be doing on Christmas Eve. I’m sure you are happy to be wrapping up the year. I know it’s been a crazy year and I have a little hound dog barking in the background. So,

Todd Veinotte: [00:00:57.51] Yeah, I’ve met that dog. I met that dog.

Clinton Wilkins: [00:01:00.75] She’s a nippy little hound, but you know, everybody needs a little bit of entertainment and there’s nothing you know, better to be doing. I’m sure you’ll be happy to be going home after the show.

Todd Veinotte: [00:01:10.74] Absolutely. And that dog actually wounded you this year? Remember you had,

Clinton Wilkins: [00:01:15.78] Oh yeah, I definitely had a little injury. For those of you who know dash hounds, I have a little long hair dash down and she goes, the Dogtopia downtown. She’s a good little girl. But you know what? A little dash owns a very sharp little teeth, so you have to be careful that they don’t nip you and this year actually got nipped in the lip. So just like little razor blades.

Holiday traditions? Potatoes!

Todd Veinotte: [00:01:41.67] What are some of your Christmas traditions? You’re an Annapolis Valley, boy? What are some of your, where tradition runs deep. Do you have some traditions, Clinton?

Clinton Wilkins: [00:01:54.15] Yeah, I definitely do. There’s really special potatoes that my mom would make every year. And I don’t even know really where the recipe came from. And as you know, Todd, my mom passed away in January of 2020, and you know, you lost a parent recently, too. So definitely, you know, challenging times. But she would always make these special potatoes and we would have, we’d love them so much that we would just like, ask for them like all the time, you know, as kids. And even now, like, I’m still making the potatoes.

They’re probably like the most unhealthy thing you could ever have. I’m pretty sure it’s cream cheese and sour cream and butter, and they’re baked. It’s like the best thing you could ever have. But I can tell you, I even remember as a child, and I don’t think children should probably get this, but or even as a child, we’d like be getting heartburn probably because these potatoes were so rich.

Todd Veinotte: [00:02:47.28] Good for the soul, though that’s called soul food, right?

Clinton Wilkins: [00:02:50.37] Oh, definitely good for the soul. So they may be on the menu here this this Christmas. I can tell you tonight we’re actually going to be having some Chinese food coming from King Bo in Chester. We had that last year. We actually spent the Christmas in Chester. One of my clients and friends had bought a property down there, so we spent the Christmas in Chester.

This year was actually supposed to be in Hawaii, but, you know, doing the responsible thing as we know what’s going on here with COVID and Nova Scotia and really across the world, we’re going be spending the Christmas down in Kingburg on Hirtle’s Beach. So beautiful spot down here and going to be having a little bit of Chinese food for Christmas Eve, which I’m pretty excited about.

Staying optimistic in the new year

Todd Veinotte: [00:03:34.68] Nice. Now you’re I would describe you as a lot of people who are successful in business. You’re an eternal optimist. Is that safe? Is that a apropos description of you? Eternal optimist?

Clinton Wilkins: [00:03:47.06] Well, you know, I think I have to be optimistic, no matter even when things feel like they are not going well. I can tell you, you know, over the last, I guess we’re going on 21 months now. There’s lots of times where, you know, I certainly felt the pressure and I think I’m an optimistic person, you know, even in the worst possible times. But, you know, I think even during this period, there’s been challenges even with my own mental health. You know, I think it’s probably come to the forefront that, you know, not enough time off.

What else do we have to do other than work? And I can tell you, thank goodness for mortgage lending because I literally threw myself into it. Not that I wasn’t super involved already. Like Todd, as you know, I wrote a book about mortgage lending. We do a show about mortgage lending, but there’s nothing that I really did other than really help customers. And, you know, I love it, but I think no matter what you do and it doesn’t matter how much you love it, you still need to have that break and that down time.

And I think a lot of us, you know, we really haven’t taken advantage of maybe the vacation time or the downtime that we could have had, you know, for better or worse. And I really hope and I’m really optimistic about 2022 that we’ll all find a little bit of a better balance. You know, I think it’s going to be needed.

Housing market and affordability in 2022

Todd Veinotte: [00:05:12.08] Yeah, absolutely, it’s going to be needed. What are your thoughts in general, I guess looking ahead when it comes to the, I guess, the market, the economy, all of those driving factors. Housing has been absolutely on fire throughout the country here. And this has become, affordability, quite honestly has become a real challenge and a real problem for too many people.

And we talked about when you were a kid and when I was a kid, certainly, and when I had the opportunity to get into the housing market at the right time. But that’s now you talk about it, it’s the Canadian dream, but it’s become a fantasy for too many. What do you say about that whole, that whole part of this component to this whole thing?

Clinton Wilkins: [00:05:57.10] You know what, it might be a nightmare for some. And I think that’s what we also need to be kind of cognisant of. We certainly have clients that we’ve done pre-approvals for and, you know, they’ve made offers on 20 and 30 properties. You know, Todd, that’s really disheartening. And I really feel for first-time home buyers. You know, we’re pretty much to a point here in Halifax and kind of surrounding areas that, you know, if you can’t afford a property in the three, four or $500,000 range, you’re kind of priced a little bit out of the market.

The one unique thing about Nova Scotia, though, if you go into more rural areas, there still are, you know, properties that could be considered affordable for a first-time home buyer. And you know, the challenge is that the price of real estate really has increased across all areas of Nova Scotia, even in the more rural areas. But I do think that for some home buyers need to start looking at maybe homes that would be considered, you know, really appropriate for first-time home buyers. I can tell you, even in the last couple of years, buyers are really looking more of that, you know, premium real estate.

And I think we’re an instant gratification culture. Don’t get me wrong, but I don’t think that you need that new construction home that has the granite countertops and the stainless steel appliances and all these things, you know, that was really what the elite were buying maybe 10 or 15 years ago. And now I think first-time home buyers are kind of looking for that forever home. But you know, I remember when I bought my first property, Todd, and yeah, it was nice, but it was $169,000 in Dartmouth. But that doesn’t so much exist today, do I think salaries are higher? Yes, but I’m not sure incomes have grown, you know, concurrently to the home prices.

Gifted down payments becoming more important

Clinton Wilkins: [00:07:55.64] So I think that, you know, families are certainly going to help out more. You know, we’re certainly seeing a lot more gifted down payments. We actually sent out an email earlier this week. I don’t know if you got it, Todd, or not, but we sent out an email to all our clients, all our leads, everybody that was in our system, you know, talking about what better gift to give this holiday than a gifted down payment?

Now I know not everyone is in that situation where the family can help out, but in other markets like Toronto and Vancouver, that’s the norm. It’s this family wealth and how can it be shared? And I think in this market where a lot of first-time home buyers, their parents have benefited by this increase in the property value, it’s grown their net worth. So I think we’re going to see a situation where potentially parents are going to leverage their homes if they don’t have the available cash to maybe help out with a down payment to get their kids into the housing market. As you know, it’s one of the best ways to kind of grow a family’s net worth.

And, you know, I think that, you know, property values are still going to increase. You know, the economists are saying, even though we’ve seen a really high increases in 2020 and 2021, they think 2022 are still going to see kind of those increases. So, you know, we may be in a situation that you know, it may be a buy now or buy never. So I think that it’s going to be working out how we can make that happen.

See you in 2022!

Todd Veinotte: [00:09:35.75] Clinton, I appreciate it. Thank you so much. Happy New Year. Merry Christmas. All that good stuff and talk in the new year.

Clinton Wilkins: [00:09:41.15] Yes, talk in the new year, Todd. I’m looking forward to it. And, you know, happy holidays to all our listeners here on CityNews 95.7 here in Halifax. And you know, we have some exciting, exciting news that’s happening here in January, and I’m sure we will be announcing that very soon.

Todd Veinotte: [00:09:57.86] All right. Take care. Talk soon, Clinton Wilkins, Cecil when we come back.

If you have any questions, get in touch with us at Clinton Wilkins Mortgage Team! You can call us at (902) 482-2770 or contact us here.