NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The number of companies going public fell to a 22-year low this summer as investor demand for IPOs dropped as the bear market for stocks deepened.

Preliminary data from Thomson Financial showed that only nine companies sold shares to the public in the third quarter, raising $5.5 billion. That's the fewest number of IPOs since the first quarter of 1980, Thomson Financial said.

"What we have, in reality, is a market that is fearful of many things," said David Menlow, president of IPOFinancial.com, who blamed uncertainty about the economy and war with Iraq.

The last company to test the waters, Windrose Medical Properties Trust (WRS: Research, Estimates), sold 5.6 million shares at $12 a piece on Aug. 16. Those shares have fallen 10.4 percent since.

A tumbling stock market, with the Standard & Poor's 500 hitting a five-year low in July, has made it unattractive for companies to go public. In 1999, when the Nasdaq surged 85 percent, initial public offerings raised more than $69 billion, a record.

Menlow said the slowdown comes despite what he says are a large number of sound companies trying to go public.

"I can't remember seeing so many deals in the system that are so good as far as value and quality," said Menlow, who declined to name them.

Next week could end the IPO drought. Forsyth Capital Mortgage, a real estate investment trust, is scheduled to sell 5 million shares at $10.

But not every deal on the calendar goes through. Thirty-one IPOs have been withdrawn this year, while another 14 have been postponed, according to IPO.com.