U.S. to Expand Tracking of Home Purchases by Shell Companies

More than a quarter of the all-cash luxury home purchases made using shell companies in Manhattan and Miami were flagged as suspicious in a new effort to unearth money laundering in real estate, the Treasury Department said Wednesday. As a result, officials said they would expand the program to other areas across the country.

The expansion of the effort to identify and track the people behind shell companies, begun in March, means that there will now be increased scrutiny of luxury real estate purchases made in cash in all five boroughs of New York City, counties north of Miami, Los Angeles County, San Diego County, the three counties around San Francisco and the county that includes San Antonio.

The examination, known as a geographic targeting order, is part of a broad effort by the federal government to crack down on money laundering and secretive shell companies.

“The information we have obtained from our initial G.T.O.s suggests that we are on the right track,” Jamal El-Hindi, the acting director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network within the Treasury, said in a department news release. “By expanding the G.T.O.s to other major cities, we will learn even more about the money laundering risks in the national real estate markets, helping us determine our future regulatory course.”

Among the suspicious transactions that the Treasury Department found tied to sales in New York or Miami this year were a $16 million cash withdrawal, a person involved in counterfeit checks and someone involved in moving $7 million around in shell companies associated with South America, Treasury officials said.

The areas being added to the order are places where buyers frequently purchase luxury real estate using shell companies, the officials said. The dollar values involved purchases of more than $500,000 or more in Bexar County, which includes San Antonio; $1 million in Florida; $2 million in California; $3 million in Manhattan; and $1.5 million in the other boroughs of New York City. Title insurance companies, which are involved in virtually all real estate transactions, are charged with carrying out the order.

Treasury officials have said that their real estate tracking program was inspired in part by a series last year in The New York Times that examined the rising use of shell companies. The investigation found that real estate professionals, especially in the luxury market, often do not know much about buyers, and it uncovered numerous buyers of high-end real estate who had been subject to government investigations around the world.

One installment of The Times’s investigation documented properties purchased in shell companies by friends and family of the prime minister of Malaysia. Those properties were subject to the largest asset forfeiture order ever in a kleptocracy case, which was announced this month.

Treasury officials said they were seeing benefits to the program in Manhattan and Miami, citing an increase in suspicious-activity reports being filed by banks and noting that the Department of Justice is finding the combination of the real estate and banking information to be helpful in its investigations.

The broadening of the rule signifies that the Treasury Department thinks the benefits to law enforcement from this sort of data collection are likely worth the cost to the industry, said Eric Berg, a lawyer at Foley & Lardner in Milwaukee and former member of the kleptocracy unit at the Department of Justice.

“There’s a lot of pushback from industry,” Mr. Berg said. “Clearly some sort of internal dialogue came to the conclusion that this is worth doing.”

Even though the title companies are ordered to identify the buyers, the burden often falls to the real estate agent, said Aaron Leider, the president of the Beverly Hills/Greater Los Angeles Association of Realtors and owner of the Keller Williams agency in the Brentwood area.

“They come to us, because who knows the client?” he said. “They don’t know the client.”

Realtor associations in California and nationally have been in discussions in recent months about how much agents need to do to comply with the rule, Mr. Leider said.

Treasury officials said the data collected in these six markets would be used to evaluate a permanent rule in the future.


Source: The New York Times, Louise Story
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/28/us/us-expands-program-to-track-secret-buyers-of-luxury-real-estate.html?_r=0

5 Ways the Government Can Save You Big Bucks on Your First Home

Itching for the key to unlock your dream of a new house? Here’s yet another reason to love your country: The U.S. has plenty of programs and incentives that could make that goal a reality. If you’re a first-time buyer—and even if you’re not, in some cases—there are some government benefits that can help you afford those new digs.

Before we dive deep into the ways the government can help fund your new home, there’s a little matter to clear up: your eligibility.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development—the U.S. agency that oversees all housing matters—is fond of bolstering the success of first-time buyers. But that doesn’t mean you’re locked out of options if you’ve already owned a home. Here’s what HUD considers a “first-time home buyer”:

• An individual that hasn’t owned a principal residence during the three-year period ending on the date of purchase of a new property. If a spouse meets this test, the couple does, too.
• A single parent who owned a home only with a former spouse while married.
• A displaced homemaker who owned only with a spouse.
• A person that owned a principal residence not permanently affixed to a permanent foundation. (Maybe you owned a tent, RV, or mobile home unit.)
• Someone who owned a property that didn’t comply with state, local, or model building codes—and couldn’t be brought into compliance for less than the cost of constructing a permanent structure.

If any (or a few) of those statements sounds like you, these options could make a move even more affordable.

1. Various HUD-funded programs

The folks at HUD grant money to a myriad of different organizations and services that can help first-timers purchase a home. From loan programs that offer lower down payments to special programs for teachers, firefighters, and a few other vocations, HUD’s resources are vast and diverse. HUD even offers federal assistance at the state level, so make sure to see if your state is covered.

2. State-specific assistance

In addition to HUD assistance, states such as Illinois, Ohio, and Washington have down payment assistance programs for first-time buyers. Eligibility criteria vary by state, but often factor in your income and the value of the property you’re hoping to purchase. If you qualify, you could score financial assistance with down payment and closing costs. You might also net some monetary relief to rehab or improve a property.

3. Military benefits

Active-duty and veteran families might be eligible for a zero-down payment Veterans Affairs home loan. It’s part of a benefit program that’s helped millions of veterans and military members purchase a home since World War II. While loans typically top out at $417,000, that limit can swell in counties with higher costs of living.

Not only do these loans allow borrowers to sidestep down payments, service personnel can also roll the mortgage insurance of 2.15 points (a point is equal to 1% of the loan amount) into the loan. More and more veterans are using these flexible, $0 down loans to crack the housing market during a time of tight credit and limping wages.

For more information, consult with a VA home loan provider such as Veterans United Home Loans.

4. Loans for Native Americans

Native American first-time buyers can apply for a Section 184 loan, which lets them buy a home with as little as a 2.25% down payment on loans of $50,000 and more. If you need a loan for less, the down payment dips to 1.24%. Unlike traditional loan approvals that are heavily dependent on a borrower’s credit score, these hinge on the prevailing market rate.

There is a small catch: Section 184 loans are applicable only to single-family homes that are for a primary residence.

5. Your retirement fund

That trusty tool you’re using to fund your golden years can help put a new roof over your head while you’re still young(ish). First-time buyers can pull up to $10,000 during their lifetime from their traditional or Roth IRA without being whacked with the 10% early withdrawal penalty.

However, Uncle Sam might come knocking with his hand out. Pull money out of a traditional IRA and expect to shell out some moolah to cover the income tax on the money. Roth IRAs aren’t subject to income tax because they’re funded with post-tax dough.

Of course, like any government agency, HUD and its local municipality siblings are often tweaking, adding, and (sadly) dropping funding options. So before signing on a purchase offer’s dotted line, make sure you investigate eligibility and availability in your area to make homeownership a tad more affordable.

Source: Realtor.com, Gina Roberts-Grey
http://www.realtor.com/advice/finance/affordability-options-first-time-buyers/?iid=rdc_news_hp_carousel_theLatest

Forget about terrorist, the FBI uses hidden microphones to catch shady real estate investors

I, like many Americans have known for some time that the government is spying on the people by monitoring electronic communications such as email and what-not, but this is a whole new level. So apparently the FBI has set up hidden microphones in out door areas to listen on the conversations of terrorist? No. - real estate investors who might be bid rigging! Go figure. 



Hidden Microphones Exposed As Part of Government Surveillance Program In The Bay Area

OAKLAND (CBS SF) — Hidden microphones that are part of a clandestine government surveillance program that has been operating around the Bay Area has been exposed.

Imagine standing at a bus stop, talking to your friend and having your conversation recorded without you knowing.  It happens all the time, and the FBI doesn’t even need a warrant to do it.

Federal agents are planting microphones to secretly record conversations.

Jeff Harp, a KPIX 5 security analyst and former FBI special agent said, “They put microphones under rocks, they put microphones in trees, they plant microphones in equipment. I mean, there’s microphones that are planted in places that people don’t think about, because that’s the intent!”

FBI agents hid microphones inside light fixtures and at a bus stop outside the Oakland Courthouse without a warrant to record conversations, between March 2010 and January 2011.

Federal authorities are trying to prove real estate investors in San Mateo and Alameda counties are guilty of bid rigging and fraud and used these recordings as evidence.

Harp said, “An agent can’t just go out and grab a recording device and plant it somewhere without authorization from a supervisor or special agent in charge.”

The lawyer for one of the accused real estate investors who will ask the judge to throw out the recordings, told KPIX 5 News that, “Speaking in a public place does not mean that the individual has no reasonable expectation of privacy…private communication in a public place qualifies as a protected ‘oral communication’… and therefore may not be intercepted without judicial authorization.”

Harp says that if you’re going to conduct criminal activity, do it in the privacy of your own home. He says that was the original intention of the Fourth Amendment, but it’s up to the judge to interpret it.

Source: CBS SFBayArea, Jackie Ward
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2016/05/13/hidden-microphones-exposed-as-part-of-government-surveillance-program-in-the-bay-area/

Move Over, Homeowners—Renters Could Get Tax Breaks, Too

Like any other Realtor whose worth their salt, I always tell my buyers that the biggest incentives for buying a home are the tax breaks. It can be argued that not as many homes would have been sold over the years if there were no tax incentives. The IRS does it to encourage home ownership, because it is believed that home owners build better communities.

Now, Representative Alan Grayson of Florida has introduced a bill in which renters will get a tax break for renting. One school of thought is that this will encourage renters to stay renters, and not ever want to buy a home. Another school of thought out there is that this might encourage more home ownership because renters could use the money they get from the tax incentive to put towards a future down payment on a house. 

Who is right? Only time will tell if the bill passes, which it is likely to not pass since it is being introduced by a Democrat congressman in a Republican controlled congress. If the bill doesn't pass, it is likely to be introduced again sometime in the future. 



It’s been said many times: The rent is too damn high. And now a recently introduced bill is trying to cut renters a break—a tax break, that is.

The bill, if it became law, would allow renters to deduct from their federal taxes what they pay for the primary roof over their heads—a proposal that could save them thousands per year.

“There’s an unequal treatment now of owners and renters,” says Rep. Alan Grayson, a Democrat from Florida, who introduced the bill. He hopes this bill would level the playing field .

For example, the average taxpayer shelling out about $1,500 a month (or $18,000 a year) could potentially save $4,500 annually through the deduction if he or she is in the 25% tax bracket, he says.

“Renters should be able to share in the tax savings,” he says. “This is a tax benefit that would go primarily to people who need it.”

About 37% of U.S. households were renters in 2015, according to a recent report from the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University.

And 49%, or 21.3 million, of renters were considered cost-burdened (that is, they plunked down more than 30% of their paychecks on housing) in 2014. Meanwhile 26%, or 11.4 million, were severely cost-burdened, shelling out more than half of their earnings each month.

“It could be a great boon for renters,” says Mindy Ault, a research associate at the National Housing Conference, a group that supports affordable housing. She notes that rents are steadily rising, but wages aren’t necessarily keeping pace.

Homeowners can currently deduct the interest they pay on their mortgages (up to $1 million) and their property taxes from their taxes. That can add up to $2,500 in savings for those in the 25% tax bracket deducting $10,000 of interest.

Those tax breaks are strong incentives for folks to buy their homes. But if the rental bill was passed, more people, particularly younger individuals and couples, might choose to continue renting instead, says Ault.

“One of the big arguments for homeownership as a means for a family to build wealth are the tax credits,” Ault says.

Many states already have their own tax credit programs for renters, mostly aimed at low-income or elderly residents. But the programs vary widely and aren’t available in each state.

They don’t “reduce your tax obligation the way a mortgage would,” says Fred Tayco, director of government affairs at the National Apartment Association, a trade organization that represents property owners, developers, and builders. And while the programs “may help, [they’re] not as significant as people would think it would be.”

For example, Indiana renters can deduct up to $3,000 from their state taxes if they meet certain requirements. Meanwhile, low-income disabled or elderly Connecticut renters can receive up to $700 if they’re single and up to $900 if they’re married.

But the likelihood of the bill being signed into law is slim, says Linda Couch, senior vice president for policy at the National Low Income Housing Coalition. Proposed laws tend not to get passed the first time they are introduced and this one was proposed by a Democrat in a Republican-controlled Congress, she says.

However, if it did pass, the tax break might actually boost homeownership.

“It could help renters who are looking to become homeowners, because it will lower their housing costs,” Couch says. “That savings could be put toward a down payment.”

Source: Realtor.com, Clare Trapasso
http://www.realtor.com/news/real-estate-news/tax-breaks-for-renters/



Related:
Home sweet homeowner tax breaks
Freshen Up On The 7 Financial Benefits Of Home Ownership This Tax Season

The Feds Want To Track Secret Home Buyers

In my career as a Realtor, I've had my share of All Cash real estate transactions. Most agents love them because they generally are less headaches than a buyer who is purchasing with a loan. Sellers are generally more likely to accept an all cash offer in a multiple offer situation (which we are currently seeing allot of in this market in the Silicon Valley) as opposed to one with financing.

Well, now it has come to light that perhaps not all of these all cash real estate transactions are on the level. In certain housing markets here in the U.S. there is a growing number of buyers who are purchasing high-end properties with all cash under a shell company to mask their identity.

Naturally the U.S. government is concerned that these secret buyers could be anything from drug lords looking to use their real estate holding launder money to terrorist. This is not to say that all such transactions are shady, the government has reason to believe that fair percentage of them are. 

So in two of the most suspect real estate markets where this is apparently going on, Miami Florida and Manhattan, title companies may soon be responsible to getting to bottom of who really owns these shell companies before escrow is to close and then report that information to the feds. Realtors may be required to help get to the bottom of these questionable transactions as well.

The federal government has grown so concerned about high value properties ($3M and above) being purchased by unknown individuals using shell companies, that the FBI has apparently hired extra agents who will be dedicated to investigating these issue. 

Whether or not the feds will expand this practice to every real estate market is unclear at this time.

U.S. Will Track Secret Buyers of Luxury Real Estate

Concerned about illicit money flowing into luxury real estate, the Treasury Department said Wednesday that it would begin identifying and tracking secret buyers of high-end properties.

The initiative will start in two of the nation’s major destinations for global wealth: Manhattan and Miami-Dade County. It will shine a light on the darkest corner of the real estate market: all-cash purchases made by shell companies that often shield purchasers’ identities.

It is the first time the federal government has required real estate companies to disclose names behind cash transactions, and it is likely to send shudders through the real estate industry, which has benefited enormously in recent years from a building boom increasingly dependent on wealthy, secretive buyers.

The initiative is part of a broader federal effort to increase the focus on money laundering in real estate. Treasury and federal law enforcement officials said they were putting greater resources into investigating luxury real estate sales that involve shell companies like limited liability companies, often known as L.L.C.s; partnerships; and other entities.

Future investigations, they said, will focus increasingly on professionals who assist in money laundering, including real estate agents, lawyers, bankers and L.L.C. formation agents.

Officials said the new government efforts were inspired in part by a series last year in The New York Times that examined the rising use of shell companies as foreign buyers increasingly sought safe havens for their money in the United States. The investigation found that real estate professionals, especially in the luxury market, often do not know much about buyers. Until now, none of them have been legally required to.

The use of shell companies in real estate is legal, and L.L.C.s have a range of uses unrelated to secrecy. But a top Treasury official, Jennifer Shasky Calvery, said her agency had seen instances in which multimillion-dollar homes were being used as safe deposit boxes for ill-gotten gains, in transactions made more opaque by the use of anonymous shell companies.

“We are concerned about the possibility that dirty money is being put into luxury real estate,” said Ms. Calvery, the director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, the Treasury unit running the initiative. “We think some of the bigger risk is around the least transparent transactions.”

The department will focus on sales that are both paid for all in cash and conducted using shell companies.

The government is requiring title insurance companies, which are involved in virtually all sales, to discover the identities of buyers and submit the information to the Treasury.

The government will put the information into a database for law enforcement.

The Treasury’s program will affect billions of dollars in real estate transactions.

In Manhattan, the initiative requires buyers in sales of more than $3 million to be reported; in Miami-Dade County, it requires reporting on sales of more than $1 million. In Manhattan, 1,045 residential sales cost more than $3 million in the second half of 2015, worth some $6.5 billion in aggregate, according to PropertyShark, a real estate data company.

In addition to starting in only two markets, the requirement runs from March through August. If Treasury officials find that many sales involved suspicious money, Ms. Calvery said, they will develop permanent reporting requirements across the country.

A senior Federal Bureau of Investigation official, Patrick Fallon, said the anonymity possible under existing shell companies had stymied investigations and the Treasury initiative would help trace illicit money.

“We fully intend to encourage expansion of it, so, not only to different geographic areas but as far as the time frame as well,” said Mr. Fallon, chief of the bureau’s financial crimes section. “We think it’ll prove its worth.”

In its investigation, The Times found that nearly half of homes nationwide worth at least $5 million are purchased using shell companies. In Manhattan and Los Angeles, the figure is higher.

In New York, The Times examined a decade of ownership at a prominent condominium complex near Central Park, the Time Warner Center, and found a number of hidden owners who had been the subjects of government investigations. They included former Russian senators, a former governor from Colombia, a British financier, and a businessman tied to the prime minister of Malaysia, who is now under investigation.

In Florida, The Times uncovered a condominium in Boca Raton tied to Mexico’s top housing official, who recently stepped down and is now a leading contender for the governor’s office in the southern state of Oaxaca.

Ms. Calvery said the findings helped convince the Treasury that more scrutiny of high-end buyers is needed.

“It’s easier to talk about it with people who aren’t specialists in our area when they read about it in the newspaper,” she said.

Indeed, last spring, New York City’s Finance Department began requiring shell companies buying real estate to report their members to the city. That rule, however, is less far-reaching than the Treasury action.

Real estate is becoming a larger target for law enforcement as well. According to two people with knowledge of cases at the Justice Department, lawyers there have begun to shape cases directly around money laundering in real estate deals rather than adding such transactions to other cases.

The F.B.I. has in recent months created a new unit to focus on money laundering, and real estate will be one main focus. The unit, which has 10 agents, will help the Justice Department delve into shell companies and the people involved in money laundering, F.B.I. officials said.

“We’re going after the facilitators of the money laundering,” Mr. Fallon, of the F.B.I., said. “They’re the bankers, they’re the accountants, lawyers, folks who are setting up L.L.C.s, they are setting up foundations, folks who are setting up nonprofits, real estate investment trusts, etc.”

The new scrutiny is likely to increase headaches for the real estate industry, in part because shell companies are not easy to penetrate. Buyers often mask their identities by layering companies on top of other shell companies. Buyers also commonly fill out L.L.C. formation papers using the names of lawyers or other place holders, often called “nominees,” instead of their own names.

The Treasury is looking for the actual owners behind shell companies, often referred to as the beneficial owners. “We’re not looking for nominees,” Ms. Calvery said.

In its order, the Treasury defined beneficial owners as “each individual who, directly or indirectly, owns 25 percent or more of the equity interests” of the entity that bought the property. Once title companies identify those people, they are required to copy driver’s licenses or passports and also pass the individuals’ names to the Treasury Department.

Stephen Hudak, a spokesman for the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, said any title companies or purchasers who provided false information could face penalties. The American Land Title Association said in a statement that it would help its members comply with the Treasury’s new naming requirements.

Under the U.S.A. Patriot Act, the Treasury is already authorized to require real estate companies to scrutinize real estate buyers, but the department has in the past faced fierce lobbying against issuing such rules. The department already requires mortgage lenders to scrutinize buyers. But cash buyers have been a big hole in the government’s oversight of the market, Ms. Calvery said.

“Repeated anecdotal information where we see criminals of different stripes putting money into real estate all suggest to us that this is an area we need to pay attention to,” she said.

Source: Ny Times, Louise Story

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/14/us/us-will-track-secret-buyers-of-luxury-real-estate.html?_r=0

Related: Feds Want to Know Who's Behind Purchases in #1 Cash Real Estate Market Miami

Will the New Mortgage Disclosure Laws Delay Your Home Purchase?

Beginning October 3, 2015, home buyers applying for a mortgage will receive new rate and fee quote forms from lenders.

These federally required consumer disclosures, which go by the name TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosures (or TRID), will make it easier for you to understand rate and fee quotes from lenders. However, they will also slow down your home-buying process.

Lenders must not only deliver these new rate and fee disclosures to you twice during the home loans process — after application and before closing — but also must comply with disclosure timing rules in the beginning and end of the loan process.

Speed wins when writing home purchase offers, and this extra time can mean the difference between a seller accepting and rejecting your offer. Here’s how to optimize your timing so you can write offers that will close faster than competing buyers.

Loan estimate disclosure and timing rules

The first new disclosure is called the Loan Estimate. This document clearly shows your rate quote, loan term, line-item fees, and cash needed to close.

Before the lender can collect fees for critical next steps in the loan process — like ordering an appraisal, which your loan can’t close without — the lender must also obtain your intent to proceed based on the quoted terms.

The Loan Estimate must be given to you within three days of applying for a mortgage. The federal agency that made and enforces the TRID rules — the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) — allows for mail or electronic delivery of the Loan Estimate.

If you applied with a lender who’s using mail delivery late on a Wednesday, they would mail your Loan Estimate and intent-to-proceed disclosures Thursday, you might get it Saturday, and they couldn’t collect fees and order your appraisal until they received your consent Monday, which is already day six into the process.

If you applied with a lender who’s using electronic delivery late on a Wednesday, they could deliver your Loan Estimate and intent-to-proceed disclosures for you to consent to online that evening, and they could collect fees and order appraisal that same evening — all on the first day of the process.

Closing disclosure and timing rules

The second new disclosure, called the Closing Disclosure, looks almost exactly the same as the Loan Estimate, which makes it easy for buyers to review the closing terms and compare them to the originally quoted terms. It also provides further clarity on closing costs by showing which line item costs are paid by buyer, seller, and third parties.

The lender must provide this document to you at least three days before closing.

The new CFPB disclosure rules don’t allow Sundays and holidays to count in this three-day waiting period, and day one is the day after you get the Closing Disclosure.

For example, if a lender sent your Closing Disclosure on a Wednesday, the three-day waiting period is Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Then they can fund your loan and close your home purchase on Monday, which is day six from the time you received the disclosure.

What is the fastest timing for the new disclosure process?

Prior to October 3, 2015, you could fund the same day you got final disclosures, and real estate agents are accustomed to writing purchase contracts based on this old timing.

As of October 3, your agent and lender must coordinate closely when writing purchase contracts to make sure your agent accounts for these new TRID timelines to write the fastest contract possible.

Shortest timeline post-application: If your lender is mailing disclosures, the CFPB’s new TRID rules add about six days in the beginning of the process from application to appraisal order. If your lender is using electronic disclosures, they can go from application to appraisal order in one day.

Shortest timeline pre-closing: All lenders must comply with the three-day waiting period after the Closing Disclosure is ready. But as the example above illustrates, the pre-closing waiting period is actually more than three days.

So here’s the key to making sure your mortgage process goes as quickly and smoothly as possible: When you find a lender in your current home shopping journey, ask them about their process for the new TRID rules, and have them clarify closing timelines for your real estate agent before you write any offers.

Source: Zillow Blog
http://www.zillow.com/blog/mortgage-disclosure-form-delay-184050/

Santa Clara County has nation’s strongest job market — by far

Geez, what a surprise! The silicon valley has the strongest job growth in the country according to a report from the federal government. For the most part, this is why there is a housing shortage, which is why rent here in the valley is the highest in the nation and why the housing market still remains hot. One thing the article below doesn't point out, dare I say, is that many of these jobs are going to foreign H1B visa workers, not bay area and silicon valley natives - just saying.


Photo: Employee cafe on the Google campus. Photo credit: BANG staff photo

Santa Clara County has nation’s strongest job market — by far

Santa Clara County boasts the nation’s strongest job market, and the South Bay region is No. 1 by a wide margin over its closest contenders, a new report out Tuesday from the federal government shows.

Over the 12 months that ended in July, total payroll employment in Santa Clara County increased 6.2 percent, by far the fastest pace of job growth in the United States, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Tacoma-Lakewood area of Washington state was the next-strongest job market, with a gain of 5 percent in total jobs over the same one-year period.

Tied for third were the San Francisco-San Mateo County region and the Salt Lake City area, which both grew at an annual pace for job growth of 4.4 percent.

The top five strongest job markets was rounded out by the Orlando region in Florida and the Dallas-Irving-Plano area of Texas, both up 4.1 percent.

The East Bay had a gain of 2.2 percent in its job totals.

Santa Clara County’s status as the nation’s hottest job market is being driven by what appears to be explosive growth in the region’s technology sector, according to a Beacon Economics analysis of figures from the state Employment Development Department.

Over the most recent 12 months that ended in July, high-tech jobs accounted for 30,800 of the 60,400 jobs that Santa Clara County added — or 51 percent of the total.

The San Francisco-San Mateo area is even more dependent on high-tech for its economic expansion. During the same one-year-period in question, tech jobs accounted for 25,800 of the 41,700 total payroll jobs added in that region — 62 percent of the total.

The East Bay’s job growth appears to much more diversified. Tech jobs produced 5,460 of the 21,300 jobs added over the 12 months that ended in July — 21 percent of the total.

Source: Silicon Beat, George Avalos
http://www.siliconbeat.com/2015/09/01/santa-clara-county-has-nations-strongest-job-market-by-far/