EAL Estate Record





AND     BUILDERS'    GUIDE.





Vol. XVII.





NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JANUARY 22, 1876.





No. 410.





Published Weekly by

THE REAL ESTATE RECORD ASSOCIATION

C. W. SWEET...............Pbesident and Tbeasuber

PRESTON I. SWEET...........Seceetaby.

L- ISRAELS.........................Business Ma.vageb

TERMS.
ONE YEAR, in advance___$10 00.

Communications should be addressed to

C.   SV.   S^WEET,

Nos. 345 AND 347 Bboadway.





THE CRISIS IN REAL ESTATE.





Xlll.

CONCLUSION.

It would be safe to say, iu the language of
mild hyperbole,' that one-half of New York
island could be sold to-day, provided the sellers
were wiDing to meet the views of buyers. We
do not insinuate that any such proportion of our
real estate is for sale. On the contrary, were
Baron Eothschild, King Kalakaua, or any other
potentate bent on acquiiing our island by pur¬
chase, he would discover, to his chagrin, that,
even in these hard times, three-quarters or
two-thirds of the premises were not purchasable
at any price, and of the negotiable portion a
fractional part only was attainable upon his
own terms. A large portion of our real estate is
owned either by imheritance, or by purchase at
low figures, thus making it more than satisfac¬
tory as a permanent investment, and, in the case
of productive property, incomparable with mis¬
cellaneous securities.

The salableness of New York real estate, in
the worst or best times is mainly a question of
valuations. At low values, buyers are easily
found; the lower the rates, the more active the
demand. At high values, owners are generally
compelled to charge themselves with their property
and turn it to the best account possible. The
substantial character and desirableness of our
real estate render it alluring and attractive as
an object of speculation.

The real estate market to-day may be termed
a buyer's market—that is to say, the buyer with
money has the power to dictate the terms on
which he will part with his funds. The seller
having property and wanting money is compell¬
ed, however reluctantly, to conform to these
terms. This statement will sound like a truism
to all but those who remember the irrepressible
eagerness with which property was sought after
from the close of the war until the veto ol 1874,
and how completely during that period sellers
maintained the advantage over buyers. Erom a
moderate experience -withrecentbuyers we are
compelled to say, in view of surrounnding
conditions, that they are not unreasonable. In
proof we could quote numerous instances of
purchasers who are widely esteemed, shrewd
and wise, as they are Irnown to be wealthy,.who
have steadily and persistently invested in real
estate from the early days of the collapse which





followed the veto until the present time. And
yet the steady decline in prices during that time
(the market being a falling one) has made all
purchases of a year ago look like the veriest
mistakes. The representative buyer of to-day
is discriminating, circumspect, exacting, slow, j
as the experience of the past twelve months
compels him to be; above all, he insists upon
hearing in values the true and sharp metallic
ring.

In what department of merchandise or
financial securities is one tithe of the confi¬
dence being exhibited that characterizes the
current purchases of real estate at present bed¬
rock prices ?

Flaving considered the present situation from
the standpoint of the several subdivisions of our
metropolitan real estate, and as buyers now con¬
trol the market, we will consider it from the
standpoint of the several classes into which they
naturally group themselves.

Speculators.—The whole speculative corps
d'armee is routed and demoralized, the rank and
file having long ago deserted, been captured, or
fallen by the way; the officers, from major-gen¬
eral to captains and lieutenants, are completely
hors du combat. No immediate rally can be ex¬
pected after such a conspicuous Bull Eun de¬
feat as they have of late sustained; while it is
puzzling to determine whence the new recruits
are to be drawn wherewith to organize a fi-esh
army. The speculative sabre lies broken, and
its scabbard empty and rnsty; the banners, once
raised so high, have fallen or are trailing the dust.
The non-speculative portion of the community—
investors, builders and house-buyers—need no
longer apprehend the incursions of raiding and
foraging parties. The whole realm of real
estate investment is innocent of speculative
presence or tactics, and appeals to the purchaser
on the sole ground of intrinsic merits. We are
wont to hear the cynical remark that men soon
forget, and what has once been done will ere
long be done again. We will venture to predict
that a decade of years will scarcely suffice to
obliterate from the minds of recently active
speculators the lessons of wisdom, particularly
in valuations and indebtedness, which have late¬
ly been impressed upon them, and that a liiie
term will elapse ere a fresh growth of credulity
will appear to assume similar risks and responsi¬
bilities undeterred by recent experiences.

Builders or Manufacturers of Buildlne/ Prod-
yg^5.—^During the past two years the volume of
speculative building has been reduced to its
minimum. The few ventures undertaken have
resulted poorly or disastrously. The cost of
production, even at the prices of to-day, is
found in the end to consume all profit or to
leave too small a margin to warrant the risk in¬
volved. The temper of the present house-buyer
is averse to the payment of any profit on build-
jng productions, however cheaply they may be





contrived. Hence, as a purchaser of vacant land,
the builder, to-day, is conspicuous by his ab¬
sence from the market. Failures and death
have of late more than decimated the ranks of
the craft. The necrology of the past few
years embraces such honored and valued
names as Churchill, Eobins, Sares, Fitzpatrick,
Perkins, the younger Hamilton, Buckley, Gardi¬
ner and Cochran— each one a tower of strength,
representing centres of influence that have here¬
tofore been widely felt iu the building improve¬
ments of our * city. The surviving solvent
builders, few and select in number, will be
chary of again risking their capital in building
ventures, and will patiently await the return of
those indispensable conditions of healthy aud
successful mechanical industry, cheap land, labor
and materials, accompanied by a pronounced de-
mandfor the manufacturedproducts. The buUd¬
ing activity of the city to-day represents the
anxiety of private owners to render their vacant
property productive, and is mainly carried on
at their expense.

Capitalist Investors.—Superficial observers of
our irrepressible commercial activity are wont
to regard speculative adventurers as the highest
exponents of our commercial hfe, very much as
they regard the grotesque representatives of
shoddy as real exponents of our social life. The
tides of fortune that have successively ebbed
and flowed over the business interests of this
country have left many noble and ignoble wrecks
behind, but have also wafted to secure and
strong anchorage many a staunch and sturdy
craft, well freighted and ably commanded. No
city in the world, with equal ratio of popula-
tionand wealth, can point to such an array of
solid moneyed men as our own—men who have
hewn their fortunes and held them in spite of
wars and panics, or have inherited wealth
and wisely administered it—men of tried
experience, of mature judgment and sound
sense, whose early discipline and habits have
crys'calUzed in sterling virtues, whose mercan¬
tile home is the counting-room, whose commer¬
cial happiness aboiinds in enterprises of great
pith and moment, whose word 's their bond,
and whose bond is like gold. It were invidious
to distingnish such by name Vihen hundreds
would scarcely tell the whole. Hammersley,
Livingston, Verplanck-Hoffman, Cossitt, Eno,
Sage, Kemp, Keep, Bonner and Vanderpoel
will serve to recall a host of names familiar to
New Yorkers—^names that might be written in
golden letters in Eeal Estate annals, and which
pre-eminently fill the rank of capitalist-in¬
vestors.

Such may be termed the ground-swell of the
real estate market. When the natural tide
threatens to recede disastrouslj' they counter¬
act its force with a strong flood of capital.
Their wise faith and clear gauging of values
recently, as   often   in   the past, have broken