AND   BUILDERS'   GUIDE.





Yoi.1:-]





SATURDAY, MAY 2, 18G8.





[No. 7.





Published Weekly .by    i
0.   W.   SWEET   &  CO.,
Room 25 World Building, No..37 Pabk Row.
TER.MS.

Six months, payable in advance.....'. ...........   3 00

PRICE OF ADVERTISING.

1 square, ten lines, three months...1.............$10 00

1 square, single insertion..........................    1 00

Special Notices, per line..........................       20

Business cards, per month.........................   2 00





Oua readers must baar Avith us for a week or
two, until the number of conveyances fall off,
when we will try and give much more read¬
ing matter. At this season of the year the
transfer lists are very heavy, and as they are
of supreme importance we must give them,
regardless of any other but building neAVs
matter.

As soon as Ave have room we intend to add
several features to the Record which will
add very greatly to its value.

Our .subscribers and patrons will bear in
. mind that we have moved from Room 31 to
Room 25, in the building No. 37 Park Row.
It is on the same floor and more accessible.





OUR INFORMA.TION BUaEA-U.

We find we have met a real want in the
information we propose to give touching the
prices of real estate. ITearly every one who
has bought houses, with whom we are per¬
sonally acquainted, tells us that before pur¬
chasing they would have given, some twenty-
five, and others one hundred dollars, if they
could have gone to any place where they
could have found out the previous history of
the property they were purchasing. Said one
gentleman to us, "I was offered a piece of
property in Seventh Avenue for $18,000. I
wanted to buy, but before doing so was
anxious to know what the previous sale had
been. I was curious to find out also tha
record of the sale of the property on either
side, also the city assessment; but after in¬
quiring, I could not get the information, and
so I bought the house blindly."

This experience is that of scores of other
people. Remember, then, that we agree to
furnish all possible information about every
piece of property in New York and Kings
counties. Tell us the location of a house or
lot, and we will tell its history; what it sold
for at last recorded sale; what the adjoining
property sold for; the city assessment; the
incumbrances, together with a careful valua¬
tion of the real value of the property. We
also search titles, and make out careful ab¬
stracts of titles when called for. Our charges
will be found moderate, and our information
accurate and reUable.





/





BOGUS NEWSPAPERS AGAIN.

In a previous issue we called attention to
a class of advertising circulars, misnamed
newspapers, wMch are now in existence, some
of which pretend to give Real Estate statistics,
but which in reality do nothing beyond adver¬
tising sales of property, by certain dealers, and
the puffing of one particular dealer. The appear¬
ance of the Real Estate Record, however,
has shown those interested in real estate how
utterly worthless those sheets were ; hence
it is not wonderful that we should enlist the
interest of business men, and that confidence
in the bogus journals should decrease in like pro¬
portion. Daily we receive letters of commend¬
ation, and not unfrequently notes of inquiry
regarding the business affairs of these circulars,
which we would not pretend to answer. The
following query, however, coming as it does from
one of the best houses down to\vn, seems too
pertinent to be thrown aside uimoticed. It is
whether the numerous reports and puffs which
appear, in a certain journal, in regard to sales
of real estate by a particular party, come from
disinterested reporters or are paid for by the
Ime ? "

With regard to this matter, all we have to
say is, that the o^vners of advertising circu¬
lars have a perfect right to puff themselves and
their business. This is what advertising circu¬
lars are published for. " You pay your money
and you take your choice."





THE COMMERCIAL CITY OF THE WORLD.

[From the Toledo Com^mercial.]

The future of New York is a theme almost
as attractive to the imagination as anything in
the region of fable. It is estimated that at the
present rate of increase, the city -will, in eighty
years, contain a population of sixteen miUions.
The increase in rents and in the value of real
estate indicates the rapid growth and the pros¬
pects of the city. DweUiiig houses which in
1863 rented for ,$800, now rent in some in¬
stances, for §2,200. The rates for business
houses are enormous, though real estate agents
say that the dull business of the present winter
has somewhat diminished the demand for large
stores, which last year rented for §40,000 and
§50,000 a year. The increase in the value of
real estate, however, is steady and prodigious.
A lot on Fifth Avenue and Central Park was
sold a year ago for §13,000; in December it
sold for $24,000, and is now in the market at
§25,000. A dwelling on Fifty-Eighth st., be¬
tween Second and Third Avenues, purchased a
month ago at $18,500, sold immediately for
§20,000. A lot on Third Avenue, near Fifty-
Ninth street, purchased a year ago for $60,-
000, sold within a few days for §70,000. The
owner of a lot on Seventy-Seventh street and
Third Avenue, which five years ago cost him
§6,500, is now refusmg §21,000. Another
owner who two years ago paid §10,000 for a
lot on Thirty-Fourth street and Sixth Avenue,
refused only a few days since an offer of secen-
ty-five tliousand doUa7's. A five story house on
Broadway, between Twenty-First and Twenty-





Second streets, which was sold two years ago
for §75,000, is now valued at $125,000.

It is said by experienced men in New York,
that the West alone -will soon demand every
lot on the island for the accommodation of its
trade. When the South is re-populated and
placed again under cultivation, the demand for
space must be greatly increased, and land on
Manhattan Island ^vill reach fabulous prices.
What, then, may we not expect when the Slia-
sissippi Valley contains a population of one
hundred million; when the Pacific slope teems
with as many more, and when the great Union
Pacific and Northern Pacific Railroads are com¬
pleted ? To this immense traffic is to be add¬
ed, a great trade from Japan, the Russian Asi¬
atic possessions, the Phillippine I.'^Iands, East-
em India, the Indian Archipelago and Australia
to Europe. The report of the Commissioner of
the Land Office shows that the greater portion
of the lighter and more costly articles of trade,
from the East to Great Britain, will pass over
this continent when the Pacific Railroad is
completed, the rapidity of transit counterbal¬
ancing the higher rates of railroad transporta¬
tion and of transhipment at San Francisco and
New York. A great portion of the teas and
silks of China, it is expected, "will thus reach
England and France, and a corresponding quan¬
tity of the higher-priced exports of these cotin-
tries will reach Asia, over our railways. Of
these commodities, the amount imported by
Great Britain, during the five years ending in
1864, were 541,428,329 pounds, valued at
§206,000,000.

New York has the advantage of London in
distances to oriental points. From London,
by way of the Cape of Good Hope, to Calcutta,
the distance is greater than from New York by
way of San Francisco, by about one hnndred
miles. To Melbourne, in Australia, the dis¬
tance is about 3,379 miles in favor of New
York. Even when the Suez Canal is complet¬
ed, which, it is stated, will be in 1869, the dis¬
tances to five important oriental points -will
still be against London. From New York by
way of San Francisco, and from London by
way of the Suez Canal, the difference in favor
of New York is as follows to the points named.
To Melbourne, 379; Yokohama, 3,989 ; Shang¬
hai, 1,914; Hong Kong, 314, and Manilla, 504
miles.

With her immense commerce by way of the
Atlantic, with the vast region of the United
States looking to her for supplies, and with the
trade of Europe with the oriental world taking
ship at her docks and train at her depots. New
York will be the most important city on the
globe, the very commercial centre of the
world. Manhattan Island must soon be cover¬
ed ^vith masses of business blocks, and the im¬
mense population of the city must seek places
to sleep beyond the river. Persons looking out
for a rapidly growing city in which to locate
and for a place to make investments in real es¬
tate, may turn to New York with confidence.
Twenty years hence lots may be sold for aa
many guineas or eagles as will cover them





Arnold & Constable propose to build j^
splendid store on Broadway, between I8tl^
and 19th Streets. It is to be on the west
side. Before they commence, it would be
well to see if Broadway is not to be widened
between   Union   Square  and   59 th   Street.