Housing woes dashing retirement plans of many

We all know it’s a terrible housing market. But did you know that the market is so rough it’s forcing many homeowners to dealy their retirements?

Reporter Jennifer Levitz, for the Wall Street Journal’s online edition, wrote a story earlier this week exploring this trend. According to the story, the number of older residents in the work force is steadily increasing. You can read the complete story here.

Apparently, as their homes lose value, older residents feel less comfortable retiring, even if they don’t plan on selling their homes.

Here’s even more evidence that this housing slump is more serious than many of the other downturns the industry has experienced. This one is having serious, long-term consequences. Let’s hope we’ve learned our lessons: It’s never good to have  housing prices inflate as quickly — some would say as artificially, too – as they did during the housing boom. The reason? It makes it that much more painful when prices return to a more realistic level.