Mortgage 101 – Homeownership Strengthens Community | July 31, 2023

In this edition of Mortgage 101, Clinton and Todd are talking all about Pride in homeownership. They discuss the challenges facing the queer community, the factors surrounding why homeownership is low in the community and discrimination in the Mortgage world.

LISTEN to the conversation on Spotify and Apple

Todd Veinotte 00:04
Alright. So let’s talk about pride and homeownership, obviously pride. It’s a, well I mean, obviously, this is something that the city is involved in. And pride is something that is a great movement for sure. So, we’re going to parlay that into talking about homeownership and pride in homeownership.

Clinton Wilkins 00:26
Yeah, and the Pride festival is starting, obviously, this weekend to the following weekend. It’s certainly been a tumultuous time for Pride here in Halifax. You know, I think any volunteer organization, certainly, it’s been challenging for the last couple of years. And I think, putting on an event of this magnitude, I think, you know, we were saying that pride in Halifax is one of the biggest prides in Canada. It certainly is tough. And you know, there’s been some leadership changes and things. So we’ll see how, what ends up happening during pride. I know the parade is on, and there’s a flag raising. That’s happening Thursday, with a TD block party after that. So we’ll see. We’ll see what happens.

Todd Veinotte 01:04
Yep. Alright. So when it comes to home ownership and pride, obviously, people’s homes, I mean, it really does become not in everybody’s case, but in some people, it becomes an identity to them, does it not their home?

Homeownership is low in the queer community

Clinton Wilkins 01:18
I think 100% It does. And, you know, overall, there’s been studies around homeownership, like in the queer community, and it’s such a low percentage. I think sometimes it’s low, because of, you know, socio economic situations. I think sometimes it’s low just to, you know, awareness and even like motivation about being a homeowner,

Todd Veinotte 01:38
Why do you say that?

Clinton Wilkins 01:39
I don’t know, I don’t know why, why it’s low, I think, here, specifically in Halifax, and we can talk about the economics of the situation, you really need two incomes, to buy a home, the average home price is over $500,000. And that means that you really need household income over over $125,000 a year. So typically, you need two people to go to make that happen just on average. And I think for some, you know, queer people, they want to go and do it on their own. You know, I think that life hasn’t always been easy, like, I can speak even to myself, like, you know, we’ve all had ups and downs, you know, in our in our lives. And, you know, I think that’s one barrier to entry. But it’s also proven, and there’s been studies around this, that people that own a home are typically more involved in their community, and you feel more connection to your community. And you typically get more involved in your community. We’re also talking about, you know, people that own electric vehicles, the bulk of people who own electric vehicles are homeowners. So there’s just so many things that are tied around, you know, owning a home, and I’m not just saying about a single family home, maybe it’s a condo, maybe, you know, it’s a semi detached, you know, whatever, there’s lots of different types of homes that you can own. But when you own it, you have the control of your, really your future. A: your financial future. But B: you know, there’s no one telling you what you can and cannot do, within you really your own home. And I think within building a community, you know, owning a home is just so important, too.

Socioeconomic challenges are affecting homeownership

Todd Veinotte 03:12
You mentioned the socioeconomic situation, I wasn’t aware that the queer community had a socio economic disadvantage. Quite honestly, I wasn’t aware of that.

Clinton Wilkins 03:23
You know, I think that there’s probably people that are on both ends of the spectrum. You know, I definitely do think that there are, you know, some challenges around fair income and, you know, access to jobs and things like that, I can tell you that there certainly is a percentage of the community that, you know, have a hard time breaking out of even kind of those entry level types jobs.

Todd Veinotte 03:49
Because of that?

Clinton Wilkins 03:51
Because of their identity, I think so yeah,

Todd Veinotte 03:53
That’s amazing. I just, it’s to me, and look, I don’t know –

Clinton Wilkins 03:56
I mean it is 2023.

Todd Veinotte 03:59
It’s just ridiculous that people still have those attitudes. It’s ridiculous.,

Clinton Wilkins 04:03
Yeah, I agree. And you think that, you know, we hear about this in, we’re talking about all types of minorities, not just queer people, you know, you hear this about African Canadians and whatever, you know, there’s not it’s not an equal playing field. And you would think in 2023, it would be, but I think, Todd, that’s why even having things like pride and talking about things like pride in homeownership, it’s just bringing it also up to that forefront because it’s things that you don’t even think about. And you know, what, I have a lot of advantages Todd, so it’s not like I’m just talking here from my ivory tower. I have a great life. But it just didn’t happen overnight. There was a lot of kicking and screaming and blood, sweat and tears to even just get to this stage in my life, so I can feel it. And you know what, I’m very lucky. And not everyone else is.

Todd Veinotte 04:51
Yeah, well, it’s funny because I mean, obviously, doing talk radio that I do every day I open the phone lines and you get all types of all comments and all walks of life, and I do welcome all opinions, but when people come out and say because there’s these people who have what they call straight pride. And it just infuriates me that somebody can’t delineate the difference between the two. Straight pride is a ridiculous and if you’re offended by this people, I’m sorry. But it’s a ridiculous comparison, when you look at the struggle that the gay community has gone through, it wasn’t that long ago, being gay was illegal in this country, like we’re only talking a few decades ago.

Clinton Wilkins 05:33
Seriously. And you know what? It wasn’t even cool to be gay, even 20 years ago. I can remember even like when I came out, like if that was like, not the in thing to do, you know?

Discrimination in the mortgage world

Todd Veinotte 05:45
So have you found that, I mean, you’ve built an incredible business, and it’s just a fact you have. You’re an amazing entrepreneur. So have you found, have you faced discrimination in your business?

Clinton Wilkins 06:00
I 100% have. You know, I 100% have, and I never let it get me down. I think that’s the one thing that really, for me, I try to keep it at the top of my mind. It doesn’t matter who I am and what the situation is. I just continue to, you know, forge forward and like, I’ve even had clients that don’t want to do business with me, because I’m gay.

Todd Veinotte 06:26
But they do?

Clinton Wilkins 06:27
Some clients decide that they don’t want to. I’ve actually had people straight out ask me. Flat out. And you know, I have no problem be like, yeah, either you want to do business with me or you don’t. I’m I’m a rock star mortgage broker. It doesn’t matter what what I’m doing in my personal life. But I’m not hiding it either. Do you know what I mean?

Todd Veinotte 06:46
Yeah, absolutely.

Breaking glass ceilings and being an advocate

Clinton Wilkins 06:47
And I think I certainly have broken through some glass ceilings, at least here. I personally think Halifax and I think Nova Scotia is very progressive.

Todd Veinotte 06:58
I think so too yeah.

Clinton Wilkins 06:59
And I think we’re very liberal here in, in Nova Scotia. But not everyone has had those same experiences. And I’d need to also remember that, and also outside of Halifax, and I think in more rural settings, it can certainly be much more challenging. And I don’t think people are as accepting as they are here.

Todd Veinotte 07:19
No, well, I will, I mean, look like, we’ve been doing this now for the better part of five years. And you and I had a great rapport right out of the gate. But I will say not once have I ever had anybody say to me anything discriminate, like behind your back or anything like that, why are you talking to this guy, or what. Never have I heard anything. So people must obviously respect the fact that I’m going to tell them what I think if they, and maybe that’s why they don’t say it. But I can honestly say it’s not I’ve not heard anything.

Clinton Wilkins 07:49
And I think that you’re such a great advocate to Todd, that you would just like tell them where to go. And yeah, not everyone has those advocates Todd, though. Not everybody has people that you know, are really going to be on their side and really help to build a community. You know, I think in Halifax, typically, we have a lot of queer people who live on the peninsula. And as you know, it’s just so prohibitive even to rent an apartment on the peninsula, like the vacancy is so so low. So I think you know, there’s certainly ways around you know, making it happen. We’ll talk about it in our in our next segment. You know, one thing I really want to touch on and I’m seeing much more people buying homes that are not necessarily in a relationship and maybe we can touch on that and a little bit more on our next segment. Okay,

Todd Veinotte 08:34
Okay, Mortgage 101, your guide to homeownership, Clinton Wilkins and myself, Todd Veinotte. We’ll be right back.

Clinton Wilkins 08:48
If you’ve liked what you’ve heard, and you want to learn more, feel free to visit us online at Tim clinton.ca.