One of the Dallas area's best-known custom homebuilders has suspended some operations.

Plano-based Sotherby Homes builds more than 300 houses a year that sell for between $300,000 and $500,000.

This week, the company's Internet marketing sites weren't working, and some of its sales offices were idled.

Sotherby has been in business for 14 years and builds in Collin and Denton counties.

Officials did not return phone calls or e-mails Monday. But the builder released a statement that said "national lenders have severely curtailed financing to builders such as Sotherby due to the recent economic crisis."

"The government bailout has not helped the situation," the company said. "We are presently working with our lenders and customers to try to resolve the situation."

Sotherby Homes is an affiliate of Plano-based Shaddock Cos., a land developer and builder that started in the 1960s.

Almost two dozen North Texas homebuilders have gone out of business during the last two years because of declining sales and reduced construction. Total housing starts in the Dallas-Fort Worth area this year were less than half what they were in 2006.