Rhode Island’s once-noisy condo market is barely making a peep.

Sales of condominiums during the first quarter plunged 37 percent, as more units sat on the market unable to find buyers, according to data from the Rhode Island Association of Realtors. Only 244 condos sold during January, February and March, down from 390 during the same period a year ago, the data show.

At that pace, it would take 22 months — nearly two years — to sell all the 1,772 condos on the market during the first quarter of this year, according to an analysis of data from the statewide Multiple Listing Service.

“Holy smokes!” exclaimed Suzanne E. Mulvee, a senior real-estate economist in Boston with Property & Portfolio Research, upon hearing about Rhode Island’s condo inventory. “That sales volume is absolutely falling off the cliff.”

In Massachusetts, the condo supply during the first quarter averaged about 16 months. In general, the market is considered “balanced” when inventory averages about 6 months.

“It tells me that Rhode Island is in a recession,” said Bob Del Deo, a real-estate agent at Coleman Realtors on Providence’s East Side. Condos often appeal to first-time homebuyers, Del Deo said, so when the economy sours, those people tend to delay buying.

Rhode Island has lost an estimated 6,000 jobs during the first three months of this year.

“It comes down to where you’re creating jobs,” said Mulvee. “If you’re not moving jobs, you’re not going to move product.”

During January, February and March, Rhode Island’s median condo price dipped seven-tenths of a percentage point, to $205,950, compared with $207,500 during the same period last year, the Realtors reported.

Condo prices fell in 17 cities and towns, rose in 12 and remained unchanged in 5, according to the Realtors.

Of the 246 condo sales during the quarter, at least 31 were foreclosure sales by banks, the Realtors reported. Foreclosure sales tend to drive down prices because properties are generally sold for the amount of the outstanding loan.

Tighter credit is also is making it harder for borrowers to qualify for condo purchases, particularly in newer developments that lenders perceive as riskier. For example, government-backed mortgages to first-time buyers often have requirements such as 50 percent owner-occupancy, Del Deo said, which makes it difficult for buyers interested in new developments to qualify.

“And if a first-time buyer is [thinking] I might lose my job, or the cost of gas is too high, or the cost of food is too high,” Del Deo said, “that’s a decision that can get delayed.”

The actual number of unsold condos may be even higher than what the inventory numbers suggest, since they include only condos listed with MLS. For example, only 5 of the 81 unsold condos at The Residences at the Westin in Providence are currently listed on the MLS, said Ralph Izzi Jr., marketing and communications director for The Procaccianti Group.

So far, 22 of the condo units have been sold and are occupied, Izzi said.

Meanwhile, more condo units are in the pipeline, such as the Capital Cove project being built near the Amtrak station in downtown Providence, which includes 96 condo units. The developer, Robert S. Roth, of Massachusetts, has said he will wait and see how the real-estate market fares next spring before deciding whether the 153 units planned for phase two will be condos or apartments.

Last year, condo prices in Rhode Island dipped 1.8 percent, the first decline in eight years, as rising inventory and slowing sales showed weakening demand. The last price drop was in 1999, when the median condo price fell by $2,500, to $88,500.

Rhode Island’s condo prices had been rising every year from 1999 through 2006.

Boston developer Intercontinental Real Estate Corp. announced in January that the company may convert one of its two condo high-rises in Providence’s Waterplace Park to rental apartments until the real-estate market improves. And some of the unsold units at The 903 Residences downtown have also been offered as rentals.

The owners of The 903 Residences cited slumping sales for their decision to look for an investment group to buy them out. As of last month, only about one-third of the 330 units at The 903 had been sold since the owners, the Athena Group of New York and Rhode Island-based Paolino Properties, bought the complex for $81 million in October 2005.

larditi@projo.com