The economic crisis and real estate crash in 2008-09 caused home values to plummet and forced many people to lose their homes, according to data released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau.

That’s not exactly new information.

However, the data also quantifies the magnitude of the loss and shows Central Oregon among the hardest hit regions in the state.

Out of the 27 Oregon counties surveyed by the Census Bureau, Deschutes County’s median home value dropped the most — $87,300 — from 2007-09 to 2010-12. Crook County came in second, with its median falling $64,900.

The two counties fared slightly better in declining rates of homeownership.

Crook County had the third highest loss of homeownership, dropping about 5.6 percentage points from 2007-09 to 2010-12.

Jefferson County’s 4.8-point drop put it in fourth place, and Deschutes County finished sixth out of 27 counties with a loss of 3.8 percentage points.

Curry County recorded the greatest loss in homeownership, about 6.5 percentage points.

The figures released Thursday came from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. It contained no data for nine Oregon counties.

Officially, the Great Recession started in December 2007 and ended in June 2009, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research.

The Census Bureau examined median home values and homeownership rates in the middle of the recession, 2007-09, and compared them to those after the downturn, from 2010-12. Using data from three-year spans allowed the agency to look at smaller areas, such as Crook County, population 20,650, as of July 2012.

Crook County’s median-home value decline merited a mention in the Census Bureau’s report. Its loss was the greatest among the 50 least populated counties in the nation examined by the agency. Deschutes County had a greater dollar-value loss, but it was not among the least populated counties.

As a state, Oregon saw a decline of $29,300 in median home value, while for the nation as a whole it was $17,300.

Of the 27 Oregon counties, only Umatilla saw an increase in median home value — $4,200 — from 2007-09 to 2010-12.

Nationally, the rate of homeownership dropped 1.7 percentage points between the two time periods, which the Census Bureau considers statistically significant. Oregon’s statewide rate dropped about 2.3 points.