"What this means is an increase in confidence from both the investment and home building sides of the market, a belief that we have hit a bottom in select markets and are beginning to see a rebound in those better locations," says Hoffman's co-principal Tom Dallape.

 

In another sign of change in the real estate market of southern California, Public builders - largely absent from the land market since 2006 - have suddenly become active players again, according to Hoffman's other co-principal Norman Scheel.

 

"On one of our deals we received almost a dozen offers from public builders, which meant that almost every publicly traded homebuilder in California put in a bid," says Scheel. "Their bids tend to be higher than most private or institutional investors have been offering in the past, and that has tended to bump up the prices. In certain markets, the finished lot values have gone up 15 percent."

 

Irvine, Calif.-based Hoffman's brokers have closed more than 1,100 real estate transactions for a total $4 billion since the company's inception in 1978.