Melanie Atkinson: Hunkering Down; Not Just for Hurricane Season

As I was watching the news coverage of Hurricane Irene last night, I was reacquainted with one of my least favorite phrases: hunker down.

My dislike of the phrase came sometime during the 2004 hurricane season when every other weekend some news reporter was telling us to just that. 

Out of curiosity, I pulled out my Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (yes, I still have an actual Dictionary and I use it frequently) and looked up the word “hunker.”  It means: “to settle in or dig in for a sustained period.”

Hmmm, that sounds familiar, and I’m not just talking about a few days during a hurricane.

Driving around the Westchase area, have you noticed how few For Sale signs you see? In comparison to a few years ago, the inventory of homes for sale is dramatically down. The inventory of homes for sale in the 33626 zip code this year has dropped by 65 percent compared to July 2007, according to Trendgraphix.com.

I know from talking to homeowners in the area that plenty of people have the desire to move to a house that provides something that their current home is lacking.  I also know that there are people out there with the means to move, however it seems to me that people are choosing to, for an annoying lack of a better term -- hunker down.

The Westchase-area-resident part of me thinks all of this rooting is great for the community.  Having long term residents creates an identity for the area.  It creates a loyalty.  It creates a history.  Back in the mid-2000’s when everyone was shuffling around, using their equity to buy a bigger house or a newer house, neighbors were always changing.  Creating a sense of community is difficult when there is a constant stream of moving trucks.

The Realtor part of me also sees this hunkering down as a good thing.  With a lower supply of homes on the market, the demand has had an opportunity to catch up.  This is great for the stabilization of local real estate market.  Recently, homeowners with the desire and the means to sell their homes are discovering that there are a lot of good, qualified buyers out there just waiting for their perfect home to pop on the market.

So, whether I like the term or not, all of this hunkering down that we have been doing has allowed everybody to take a deep breath.  Just by rooting ourselves a little, we have probably made a better future for the Westchase area.  And, hey, if we have to hunker, this is a pretty good place to do it.

Melanie Atkinson is a Westchase Area Realtor with The Wood Team at Coldwell Banker.  She can be reached at 813-368-6084 or melanie.atkinson@floridamoves.com. 

Follow me on Twitter @CBMelanieA or "Like" The Wood Team on Facebook.