Delta Associates' new condominium report, released yesterday, noted a trend in sales that makes a marketer shudder: A grand total of 13 condos sold in the Baltimore metro area in the first three months of this year. The area had 263 sales in the first quarter of 2007, Delta says. (It defines the area as Anne Arundel County, Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Harford County and Howard County.)

That's actually not the worst quarter of the slump. July through September of last year, the metro area recorded -12 sales of condos. Yes, negative sales. 

Delta defines a sale as a binding contract with a deposit, but buyers have been backing out of contracts. The company, speaking of the Mid-Atlantic region as a whole, said in a press release that "projects are seeing buyers fail to settle -- back out of sales contracts -- from 15% to 50%."

Developers have dropped their listing prices but pulled back on other concessions, leaving the bottom-line price for buyers down only modestly from a year ago, Delta added.