Real Estate Record

AND     BUILDERS'    GUIDE.





Vol. XVII.





!NEW TORK, SATURDAY, JUKE 17, 1876.





!No. 431.





Published Weekly by

THE REAL ESTAfE RECORD ASSOCIATION

TERMS.
OKE TEAR, in adirance___§10 00.

Communications ahould be addressed to

Nos. 345 AND 347 Bboadway.





RAPID TRANSIT.





So far the street car railroads have the best ot
the contest with elevated roada.   They have
brought the matter up in such form before the
courts that both the Greenwich elevated and
the Gilbert roads are practically stopped until
more legislation can be secured from the Senate
and Assembly, which will sit nest winter.    The
arguments against the Gilbert road, made by
Mr; Wm. M. Evarts, if pronounced good by the
courts would put a stop to all improvements in
transit in this or any city in the country.    The
whole body of legal decisions is so clearly in
favor of the right of the community to increased
facilities for  "transit"   that there can be no
question   as   to   the   final   decision,  even   if
it  rests   with  the   courts;   but  still the law
affords  so many chances  for delay, and  the
counsel  of  the  railroads  are  so   expert and
skillfal in their business, that we judge that
there   is   very   little   hope   of   the   Gilbert
road being  constructed  before   the  meeting
of  the Legislature next year,  nor then until
some additional legislation  is secured.     But
©venttially New York must and will have rapid
transit, for it now has two companies with an
immense pecuniary stake at hazard to fight the
matter through the courts, and, though delayed,
the triumph of the elevated roads is as certain
as any event of the future.   Even should they
be checked, the urgent necessities of the Cen¬
tral and Harlem roads will compel the continu¬
ation of rapid transit trains below Forty-second
•street.   This we will have before three years
aire over, even if the other schemes should be

kept back.

-----------«<<!>>«-----------

THE   CENTENNIAL   AND   TRADE.





ly connected with the different national exposi¬
tions. But the favorable accounts sent abroad by
the correspondenls of the European papers are
creating a lively interest in our admirable na¬
tional exposition, and we now, hear that there
will be quite a large influx of Europeans during
the latter part of August and the months of Sep¬
tember and October. This is a Presidential
year, when political excitement throws a damper
upon active business; but we believe that the
Presidential contest is not likely to arouse very
deep feeling this year. There are no exciting
or important questions dividing the two parties,
and the contest will be one between men rather
than measures. The elements for disturbance
do not seem to exist, hence we look for a some¬
what quieter canvass and less disturbance of
trade than usual. Should discontent with the
financial condition of the country induce a
change of administration, it is not likely that
this would involve any violent change in our
financial system. At present there does not
seem to be any reason to expect any sweeping
political change. The two parties are pretty
evenly divided, and neither will have a majority
large enough to institute any marked revolution
in the national finances.





It is not to be disguised that some disap¬
pointment is felt in this city at the slight effect
the business consequent upon the Centenidal
appears to have had upon the retail trade of New
York. It was supposed that this city would be
the funnel through which people from other
quarters and from Europe would pour into Phila¬
delphia, and that New York hotels and New
York stores would profit by summer travel at a
season when business was usually duU. It is
true there has been some additional business in
our hotels, but the storekeepers report very
light sales, and hence much discourage¬
ment is telt both here and in Philadelphia.
But we judge that better times are com¬
ing. So far, scarcely any foreigners have ar¬
rived in  New York   except those iminediate-





EEVIVAL IN BUILDING.

[From the New York Daily Sun.]
For very nearly three years we have had, in
all branches of industry connected with the
building trade, an almost unbroken record of
reductions in wages and falling values. In the
beginning of 1874 there were in the market a
large number of brown-stone houses built by
speculators for sale, and these properties were,
for the most part, heavily mortgaged. Daring
the decline established in the price of land, la¬
bor aLd materials, avery considerable number
of these properties were sold under foreclosure
sales, and came into the hands of the mort¬
gagees at largely reduced rates. Perhaps one-
half of the speculative builders disappeared or
went into bankruptcy; a few struggled along
with the semblance of solvency, as represented
by equities of doubtful value. Meantime buUd¬
ing came almost to a standstill. The result, as
might readily have been foreseen, has been the
gradual absorption of the greater part of the up¬
town houses; they have been sold, let or traded
off; in a word, they are occupied and' out of the
market.

The number of new houses now for sale
in the upper part of the city is actually less
than has been known for several years. New
York has increased in population during these
past years; people continue to eat and drink,
and be clothed very much as belore; every
one must have a roof over his head; famihes
<ajnnot encamp on the public squares, or sleep
&.e the savages. Most of the choice up-town
building lots—say between Sixty-fourth and
Eighty-sixth streets, and Fifth and Third ave¬
nues—the region most in favor with builders—
can, when offered for sale, be had, on an average,
at thirty-three and one-third per cent, less than
three years ago. The foreclosure ^sales in this
region are coooparatively rare, weak holders
of vacant lots having been pretty much weed-
ed.:Out.... ";
While land has declined thirty-three and one-





third per cent., the average wages of day labor¬
ers have been lowered to one dollar or one dollar
and twenty-five cents per day; there is no stand¬
ard rate for mechanics' wages, which, however,
continue to be lower than iu any of the previous
years. Materials, like-wise, are unprecedentedly
low, and money on mortgage is abundant.

tinder all these circumstances it is not sur¬
prising that we should see a considerable revival
in the building interest, A movement in that
direction has already set in, and promises to as¬
sume very important dimensions. Before the
close of the summer the plans for new stnxc
tures, dweUings, stores and tenements, filed
with the Superintendent of the Department of
Buildings, will, from present indicaUons, exceed
in number and importance anything we have
seen since the summer of 1871.

Let those who are unfamiliar with the amount
of building now in process stroll through the
up-town building district and they will be sur
prised. Fifty-eighth street on both sides, bc"
tween Fifth and Sixth avenues, is alive with
building and preparations ior building. Madi'
son avenue on the east side, between Fifty-fiftlT
and Fifty-sixth streets, is to be bulk up. On
the north side of Fitty-sixth street, between
Madison and Fourth avenues, preparations for
immediate improvements are likewise in prog¬
ress. In Sixty-fourth street, between Fourth
and Lexington avenues, ten brownstone houses
have been started on the north side. In Sixty-
fifth street, between Fourth and Madison
avenues, ten others are to be put up. On
the southeast corner of Madison avenue and
Sixty-eighth street five first-class houses are
well advanced. On the northeast comer of
Madison avenue and Seventy-fourth street
five houses are to be immediately erected, and
three on the northeast comer of Seventy-
fifth street, the foundations for which are now
being laid. We hear likewise of negotiations
now pending for the purchase of land in this dis¬
trict, which will no doubt result in other enter-
pnses. It will be noticed that while compara¬
tively little building is going forward on the
high-priced Fifth avenue lots, Madison avenue
and the adjacent streets running over to Lex-
ingtpn avenue, and even beyond, seem at pres¬
ent the favorite localities'.

The building interest is second to none in im¬
portance in this city. A revival in building
means steady employment for a large class of
our laboring population, who have been idle
during many month.:5. It is one of the most
cheering signs we have for a long while been
able to record. It betokens confidence in the
luture, and indicates a behef among those who
have been anxiously watching the market for the
last three years, that land, labor and materials
have fallen to a point wluch warrants the re¬
commencement of building, and holds forth solid
inducements of profit.

There is no danger of New York losing her
commercial supremacy, and this it is which
gives value to her real estate. The total imports
and domestic exports of the port of New York
in 1874 were $735,493,891, bemg an increase of
$231,500,000 since 1870. During the same
period her rivals, Philadelphia, Baltimore and
Boston, have in the aggregate gained $71,800,000,
standing relatively thus:

Total Imports and Domalie Exports.
1870.               18T4.

NewYork..................$503,962,497      $735,493,891

Boston....................    59.776.112         80.518,032

Baltimore....................   33,842,716         56,822,249

Philadelphia................   31,403,807         59,545,912

It will thus be seen that New York has some-
I thing solid to depend on in the future.