Those who planned to retire on the proceeds of their appreciating homes (and stock portfolios) are being especially hard hit by today's housing slowdown, according to a Wall St. Journal story I spotted today.

Prices in the Northwest haven't suffered to the degree that other areas have, but long gone are the days of double-digit appreciation. (It was typical in 2005 and 2006 for Pierce County home prices to increase year-over-year by 12, 15 and 17 percent -- and more -- compared to a decline last month of 7.8 percent, according to the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.) Anybody made retirement or move-up or any other kind of plans based on fast-rising prices that have since been reined in?

Here's an excerpt of the WSJ story:

As the falling real-estate and stock markets erode their savings, many aging Americans are delaying retirement, electing labor over leisure in uncertain times.

A three-decade veteran at International Business Machines Corp., Dick Boice had planned to sell his house, pack up and move to Arizona with his wife, Lauren, to take early retirement. But two months after the January date he set to exit the work world, Mr. Boice, who is 59 years old, is still on the job. He figures he'll stay put for another couple of years.

The Boices had counted on proceeds from the house sale to boost their retirement income. After a year on the market, the roomy colonial in Blue Springs, Mo., didn't move, forcing the couple to cut the asking price by $40,000 to around $250,000. The house remains unsold. Meanwhile, Mr. Boice has watched the value of his 401(k) and individual retirement accounts fall by roughly 20 percent so far this year, to a combined $240,000.

"Everything is just heading south," says Mr. Boice, who works in client support for IBM in Kansas City, Mo. "You can't hardly make any kinds of plans because you don't know what you can count on."

Mr. Boice has plenty of graying company at the grindstone. Millions of retirement-age Americans, stung by the recent economic pall, suddenly are having to reassess their plans — with many forced to quickly change course. In February, the proportion of people ages 55 to 64 in the work force rose to 64.8 percent, up 1.5 percentage points from last April. That translates to more than an additional million people in the job pool, according to the U.S. Labor Department. The ranks of those 65 and over in the work force rose to 16.2 percent from 16 percent in the same time span — meaning 212,000 more hands on deck. So far, the numbers for March continue to show a "sharp" increase, says Steve Hipple, a department economist.

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