HOLLY SPRINGS - Oak Hall seems to be a sure bet to almost any homebuilder. The mix of inexpensive land, good schools and ample roads has attracted droves of families seeking more home for their money and a painless commute to Research Triangle Park.

Yet last month, Orleans Homebuilders walked away from 17 undeveloped lots, selling them for an average of $35,000 each -- roughly 20 percent less than what it paid in a handful of transactions spanning the past several years, county property records show.

The sale, which represents a smidgen of the 1,400 lots the Bensalem, Pa., company unloaded across the country last month, illustrates how the national housing bust is shifting demand for dirt -- real estate's most basic commodity -- even in relatively robust regions such as the Triangle.

National builders are unloading thousands of lots to pay down debt and reduce carrying costs as they confront what is expected to be another dismal year of sales.

Most of those sell-offs have occurred in states such as Florida and Arizona, where demand for new homes has dried up as buyers work through a backlog of new and existing homes, padded by foreclosed homes offered by lenders. But some builders are scaling back or abandoning projects in healthier states such as North Carolina to make up for losses elsewhere.

M/I Homes last month sold 3,700 lots nationally, including a proposed community in Southern Pines. The Columbus, Ohio, company sold 172 lots at its planned Pine Harbor community for $4.5 million -- 18 percent less than what it paid in 2006, said Ed Kristensen, who runs the company's local division. The loss doesn't account for an estimated $4 million M/I spent to improve the land's infrastructure.

"Most of the nationals are not purchasing [land] right now," he said. "Everybody's hunkering down and planning on a static level of activity in 2008 -- at best case."

A softer market

It's a contrast from the attitude held by developers of offices, apartments and shops, whose appetite for Triangle land persists.

The Triangle avoided the worst of the housing bust until recently.

Total sales in the region were essentially flat last year, Triangle Multiple Listing Service data show, compared to a 22 percent drop nationally.

But in the past three months of 2007, Triangle home sales were down 16.5 percent, compared to the same period in 2006. Nationally, fourth-quarter sales were off 21 percent in 2007.

Consequently, homebuilders bought 2,063 lots in Chatham, Durham, Franklin, Johnston, Orange and Wake counties during the fourth quarter -- 35 percent less than the average number of lots bought during the same period in the previous three years, according to Market Opportunity Research Enterprises of Rocky Mount.

"Things have softened a bit," said Jay Taylor, a Sperry Van Ness broker who is representing the seller of a 473-lot development in southeastern Raleigh. He recently ramped up advertising for the property -- something he would have spent less time on two years ago, when national builders were gobbling available land.

"People want to see where the bottom of the housing market is locally and nationally before they make decisions," Taylor said.

Buyers still around

Indeed, land buyers are not extinct in the Triangle. Many investors are still keen on a market that is poised for long-term growth, said Brenda Compton, a land broker for Hartwell Realty.

"Even if they're not blazing the hot trail that they were five years ago, there's people out there with money, people looking for opportunities," she said.

And as national builders retreat, new opportunities are emerging for local and regional investors, who are less exposed to the nation's worst markets.

Preston Development of Cary took control of 1,500 lots in Pittsboro late last year after Toll Brothers abandoned plans to build there.

Orleans' lots in Holly Springs were bought by Garman Homes, a Durham builder of custom houses.

And M/I's Southern Pines lots were bought by an orthopedic surgeon who "dabbles in land," Kristensen said. "He got a great bargain." M/I is narrowing its focus to Raleigh, Durham, Cary and Chapel Hill, which it considers a safer bet than Southern Pines.

That project is still a sound one, Kristensen said, but "M/I is not the right person to do it right now."