The Wall Street JOURNAL (6/1/2006) has a good article that elaborates on opportunities to shield profits made in real estate sales. With the rapid appreciation of properties in this geographic area some of the following  taken from this article might interest you:

Private Annuity Trust: Sell assets to a trust in exchange for annuity payments that last the remainder of your life. If anything is left in  the trust when you die, it goes to your heirs free of estate taxes.

Charitable Remainder Trust: Put assets into a trust and receive a regular payment stream. At the end of the trust's term, whatever is left goes to a charity of your choice, for which you shall receive an upfront tax deduction.

1031 Exchange: Elaborated on more fully above but simply stated- this strategy enables you to defer capital gains that you generate by selling one investment property and quickly buying another property of equal or greater value.

Structured Sale: With this option, you accept a series of payments for the sale of your property thereby spreading out capital gains taxes over years. The buyer does not make the payments directly; rather, he pays a financial service firm to issue them.

Obviously, you should check these out with your CPA or tax lawyer!