O.C. Home Values Decline Nearly 19% in Past Five Years : Real estate: The drop in local housing prices exceeds the statewide average. Los Angeles County homeowners fare worse.

Orange County home values have dropped an average of 18.9% during the past five years as a devastating real estate downturn has hammered prices throughout California, according to a new study.

The county’s decline is slightly greater than the drop in values throughout the state, but Orange County has weathered the real estate recession better than most areas of Southern California, the study found.

Overall, homes in Southern California have declined 21.7% in value, and Los Angeles County homes have dropped 24.7% during the past five years. Home values in Santa Monica dropped 34.5% in value.

“It may look grim in Orange County, but they have come out of these five years fairly well,” said John Karevoll of La Jolla-based DataQuick Information Systems, which developed the study with an accounting firm. “Especially when you compare Orange County with Los Angeles County.”

In Orange County, two Newport Beach areas reported the largest extremes in the way values declined. The Newport Beach ZIP code of 92663 showed the biggest drop, 27.8%, while the area near Fashion Island showed the smallest value drop in the county, 9.2%.

“These high-end neighborhoods always dance to the tune of a different drummer,” Karevoll said.

According to the study, home values in California showed their first decline five years ago, decreasing slightly between the second and third quarters of 1990.

The home value index, developed by DataQuick and the accounting firm of KPMG Peat Marwick, tracks values by ZIP codes and uses a statistical model that incorporates such factors as home price, location, home size, year built and amenities.

While home values have gone down 17% in California during the past five years, the story is very different in other areas of the country. Values have gone up 15.6% in Arizona, 17.7% in Nevada, 19.3% in Washington state and a whopping 67.8% in Oregon.

* STATE FIGURES: D2