Dive Brief:

• The after-effects of the housing crash and recession are keeping many retirement-age Americans in the workforce because they need their salaries to pay their mortgages.

• The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has estimated that 30% of senior citizens are paying off mortgages after age 65, CNBC reported. Some are stuck with swollen mortgages after they refinanced and spent their equity on other things, while others overpaid for homes during the housing bubble and have found themselves with loan balances higher than the value of their property.

• At the same time, as more companies have abandoned traditional pensions, this generation is the first to be tasked with managing its own retirement savings, and many did not save enough or have borrowed from their accounts over the years, CNBC reported.

Dive Insight:

Approximately 1.5 million seniors lost their homes to foreclosure between 2007 and 2011, according to AARP. While that will permanently remove many older Americans from homeownership, builders who specialize in the 55+ housing market remained optimistic in the first quarter of the year about the near future of sales to that age group.

The National Association of Homebuilders reported that both actual and projected sales increased between January and April, although fewer prospective buyers visited model homes than during the prior quarter.