NYT article could have easily been written about today

And who was President at that time?

NY Times:

By ERIC SCHMITT
Published: April 13, 1990

Across the metropolitan region, thousands of people who bought homes during the long housing boom of the 1980's are suffering wrenching emotional and financial hardships as the value of their single largest investment slips away.

Signs of distress can be seen across New Jersey, Connecticut, the mid-Hudson area and on Long Island. Housing foreclosures, delinquent mortgage payments and personal bankruptcy filings are rising.

As a result of financial pressures caused largely by high housing costs, corporate employee-assistance programs report record numbers of workers seeking emotional and financial counseling. Psychologists and social workers say they are treating more cases of stress, depression, spouse and child abuse and marital strife.

''All of us were brought up to believe that if you saved enough money to buy a house, your economic future was secure,'' said Dr. Richard Friedman, a psychologist at the State University of New York at Stony Brook who specializes in stress management. ''Each year, as you paid off the mortgage, the value of the house went up.

''Now, for the first time in 45 years, people who have put their life savings into what they thought was a rock-solid situation are losing money,'' he said. ''This has caused unmitigated anguish. Some people are on the verge of panic.''