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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 28, no. 719: December 24, 1881

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Real Estate Recor AND BUILDERS' GUIDE. Vol. XXYIII. NEW YOEK, SATUEDAY, DECEMBEE 24, 1881. No. 719 Published Weekly by The Real Estate Record Association TERMS: ONE YEAR, in advance.....$6.00 Communications should he addressed to C. W. SWEET, 137 Broadway. J. T. LINDSEY'Business Manager. THE GENERAL MARKETS. The bears have complete possession of the Stock Exchange. Stock after stock is at¬ tacked and prices steadily gravitate towards lower figures. It is understood that Mr. Jay Gould is once more a pronounced bear, a part that fits him much better than as a bull, trying to maintain the market. Why the market should go down in the face of every material condition to advance it, is the question which at present is being much discussed in financial circles. Labor is abundantly and profitably employed, man¬ ufacturing industries were never so active, immigi-ation is unprecedentedly large, rail¬ roads are doing an immensely increased bus¬ iness, and yet here are stock values reced¬ ing. Of course this drift of things must be due to some general cause, quite apart from the ordinary material conditions. The very ac¬ tivity of trade and manufacturing industries is taking money away from Wall street. In ordinary years the money sent out to move the crops during the fall begins to return in December. But this year exchanges are against New York from nearly every point. The surplus money of the country is being invested in land, in manufacturing enter¬ prises, in building, and in a thousand spec¬ ulative ways outside of the stock markot. Then, it is not to be disguised that the pro¬ posed silver legislation, urged by President Arthur and Secretary Folger, has had a depressing effect upon prices. Even conced¬ ing that in order to secure the consent of other nations to bi-metallism it is desir¬ able for the United States to stop the coin¬ age of silver, still the fact remains that a practical withdrawal of $100,000,000 of currency, which is about the amount of fAl- ver and certificates afloat, would necessarily cause a drop in stock values from 20 to 30 points. Any withdrawal of currency, gold, silver or paper, is contraction, and the stop¬ page of the issue of silver certificates was immediately felt in this market. This is a matter well understood abroad, and since the receipt of Secretary Folger's report, and Tiesident Arthur's message in Europe, there have been heavy sales in this market upon European account. The German bankers, heretofore great bulls on American securities, have been heavy sellers recently, hence the weakness in Denver & Rio Grande, St. Paul, New York Central, and the other stocks dealt in at Hamburg, Berlin and Amster¬ dam. The terrible shrinking caused by the withdrawal of silver as money in Germany, in 1873, has not been lost upon German financiers. There is no more gold coming this way, and without gold importations we have never had a bull market in our ex¬ change since resumption. The grain and cotton markets are also weak in sympathy. The break in prices may have one good effect, in stimulating the export of our agricultural products. Of course there will be a recovery of prices sometime early next year. From the com¬ position of the committees of the House, it is clear that there will be no disturbance of the tariff, and then it is almost certain that an effort will be made to revive our foreign commerce by means of generous subsidies to steamship lines. Liberal appropriations will also be made for river and harbor im¬ provements, while doubtless some internal taxes will be taken off. Should there even be a good prospect of Mr. Randall's funding biU passing, it may begin quite a formidable bull movement. If the depression in Wall street continues up to the time that Congress reassembles, some legislation will be attempted to help prices, for a lowering in Wall street casts a gloom over all the mar¬ kets. WHAT THE FIGURES SHOW. Early in September we commenced the publication of a weekly table showing the condition of the real estate market, as told by the number of conveyances and mort¬ gages, the amounts involved and how much of it was due to transactions on the other side of the Harlem River. The figures ^vere interesting as they showed the fluctuations in business from week to week, and furnish¬ ed operators the data by which they could judge of the state of the market and the drift of prices and transactions. Those who studied the tables carefully could see that there was every week an increase in the number of real estate transactions as well as in the sums of money involved. This is shown in a most striking manner where the oflacial figures are given month by month, as follows: 23d & Cons. Am't. Nom. 84th W. Am't. Nom Sept. 389 4,937,744 103 59 218 061 12 Oct. 619 8,6.24,824 169 75 331560 23 Nov. 876 13.464,964 225 103 353,565 19 T. & Morts. Am't. 5 p c Am't. 1. Co. Am't. Sept. 497 4,329,012 96 1,261,881 89 1.848,250 Oct. 793 6,071,026 134 1,332,181 141 2,095125 Nov. 954 12,315,113 208 2.556,695 166 5,303,073 Of course it should be understood that September in the above table represents the business really done in August, while the October figures represent transactions of perhaps a month previous, when the bargains were made and before the titles were re¬ corded. When the December figures are given, they will show the transactions main¬ ly of November. But the point to be kept in mind is, that there is an increasing stream of money pouring into real estate in this city. If one was to judge by the transac¬ tions on the Real Estate Exchange, they would suppose that transactions came to a standstill during December, whereas, the ofiacial list of conveyances shows liberal ^ buying and large transactions. It is perhaps hazardous to forecast the future, but if the present depression in Wall street continues, it is not likely that the sale.s of real estate will increase in the immediate future. It will be an excellent time to buy, for there is no immediate prospect of any speculative enhancement in values in real estate. There are plenty of houses for sale at cheap rates, and it is very doubtful whether as many edifices will be constructed next year as this. The person wlio l)uys cheap house property during the next two months will have no reason to regret it. No matter what stock panics they may liave in Wall street, real estate on this island is all right, and must eventually advance vritli the growth of the city. NEW OPENINGS IN THE WEST. Capitalists with spare means and a wish to make money would do well to carefully note the progress of railroad building through and along the Rocky and Sierra Nevada Mountains, as well as the valley between and the Pacific slope beyond. The Engineering and Mining Journal of Decem¬ ber 10 and 17 contains two letters from a very well posted engineer, that tells what is doing in the way of raflroad building west of the Mississippi and below the line of the Union Pacific road. The activity is some¬ thing marvelous and involves a complete net-work of railroads in all the country west and southwest of Colorado, including Mexico. It makes one dizzy to read the figures, and it would seem as if it would take 50,000,000 of people to make these new railways pay. Yet it is doubtful whether more than 3,000.- 000 of human beings can in any way con¬ tribute to the support of these roads, includ¬ ing those which run through Mexico. A man must have extraordinary faith in the future of his country who can make invest¬ ments in the stock and bonds of these new railway enterprises. But what a world of wealth is opened up to the mine prospector and the agriculturist as well as the small trader. The richest mineral regions of the globe will contribute directly to the most extensive railway system in the world, for the tracks are being laid to-day through nearly every canon and valley where mines abound, and which have heretofore been inaccessible. It is no wonder that there is a mining excitement under way, notwith¬ standing the fearful losses of those who bought mining stocks. The gold, silver and copper is to be found in abundance along- the slopes and spurs of the Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountains. Our prospectors are adventurous and enterprising, there are plenty of trustworthy experts, our mining machinery is the best in the world, our min¬ ing labor the most intelUgent, and there is plenty of capital eager to invest where there is a fair chance of profit. Next to our rail¬ road building, our investments in minerals and mines promise to be the great specula¬ tive card of the future. It is a pity some way could not be devised of concentrating capital so as to work min-