Last year, the blood pressure of some commissioners was raised over a land deal that would have paid $75,000 an acre for a 47.7- acre of land that would house the Northeast Wake middle school. The planners in charge of land acquisition for the school system said the price and the acreage were fixed and the seller wouldn't budge.

With the current economic conditions -- a mortgage crisis and credit crunch -- school staff, the county and the town of Rolesville were able to knock down the acreage by 10 and the price down to $63,000 with the Town of Rolesville kicking in an extra $3,000 to have some of the school's athletic fields serve double duty for Rolesville's parks department.

Joe Bryan, chairman of Wake's Commissioners, said, "It's a case of everybody rolling their sleeves up and creating a better model."

It could also be the case of a slowing housing market.

Rolesville and Wake Forest are two of the fasting growing areas of Wake County, but their are hundreds of unbuilt lots stretching into Franklin County. Eventually all will get built out, barring an epic tidal wave or a dinosaur-killing-level meteor, but the negotiating position for large land buyers to governments are eroding.

It will be interesting to see the large scale land deals the county will broker as it finalizes the open space purchases to finish the Little River Reservoir.

It might help Bryan's other take.

"I like to buy land as cheaply as possible," he said.