Dealing with debt: 1st-time home owners anxious, MUN prof says

An anthropology professor at Memorial University in St. John's is focusing on first-time home buyers. as she studies how people cope with debt in their everyday lives.

"I think there's a lot of concern and anxiety at the moment," Robin Whitaker told CBC Radio's St. John's Morning Show. 

• Hot housing market in St. John's cooling off, surveys say
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Whitaker said many of her interviews were conducted before the recent budget announcement, and she's since checked back with the home buyers to see how they're feeling. 

"They're wondering, 'Should I have locked myself into a five-year term, am I going to lose my job, am I going to have to move away, am I going to be able to manage my fees and taxes or the loss of income — from the people who have small children — from the baby bonus?'"

According to Whitaker, that's something most economic studies don't tap into.

She said she's interested in exploring how debt structures people's everyday lives, changes their circumstances and affects their relationships.  

"The thing about statistics and the broad scale approach is that they don't tell us about what debt means to people or what it feels like to be entering what, for many people, can be a nerve-wracking experience of buying their first house."

Not all doom and gloom

Despite the downturn in oil prices, the difficult provincial budget and the potential impact of the Fort McMurray fires, the professor said she's also picked up on a sense of resiliency. 

There's a lot of uncertainty.- Robin Whitaker. MUN professor

"People do certainly think, 'I've managed so far,' and there's a certain sense of, 'Well, we're going to have to face these challenges whatever the situation is,' so there is that resiliency," she said. 

"But there's a lot of uncertainty, is really what people are feeling."

When it came to finding research subjects, Whitaker consulted with real estate agents, posted in Facebook groups, and even went to open houses to hand out information sheets to prospective buyers. 

She's hoping to eventually publish her findings, but said she also hopes the early research will serve as the basis for a future study about coping with debt.

Interested in taking part?

Whitaker's study is ongoing and she said she's looking for more first-time home owners to take part. 

Those interested can send her an email. The testimonials, she said, are confidential and participants can withhold information or leave the study altogether if they choose.