A beacon of hope for Inland Southern California

A beacon of hope for Inland Southern California’s distressed home-building industry shines brightly near a tollway to Orange County where houses by the dozens are in various stages of construction and the pounding of hammers fills the air. “To me the Irvine Company single-handedly introduced the real estate recovery to Southern California, and they deserve a lot of credit,” said Mark Boud, chief economist at Real Estate Economics in Irvine and one of the consultants who advised the Irvine Company in its decision to re-launch housing development on the Irvine Ranch.