I’m not sure that the comparison is really valid as the cause of the downturn back then was much different than it is now. Back in 1990 the downturn was caused by the national recession, that resulted in huge losses in the high end job market in So-Cal. Lose the high end jobs first and the high end of the market collapses first. Keep in mind that these companies continued to operate, they were just firing senior management/engineers and replacing with new grads or not at all, the low end jobs were not affected nearly as badly, which kept the low end of the market alive for much longer.

This time around the problems are completely opposite, starting at the bottom, not the top. Now the problem is the ridiculous lending policies that enabled people that should never been able to borrow money at all to get free money in the form of 100% no doc financing. Now that these loans are going in the crapper, it takes low end housing with it immediately, following shortly after it will effect the broader economy as the investors that financed this boom lose billions, the shaky economy which will trickle back up the chain to the high end jobs as companies baton the hatches in the economic instability, and finally back to high end properties as the top 1% start worrying about their jobs.