Real  Estate   Record





AND BUILDERS' GUIDE.





Vol. XVIII.





NEW YOEK, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1876.





No. 454





Published Weekly by

TERMS.
ONE YEAR, in advance.. ..$10.00.
Communications should be addressed to

C.  -SV.  SWEET,
Nos. 345 AND 347 Broadway.





TAX VALUATIONS.
IS The tax-gather is an unAvelcome visitor
Avitli whom the American public during the
past ten years has become painfully familiar;
and in the City of New York particularly has
this individual asserted his prominence, and
intruded himself into our domestic and busi¬
ness affairs. No community in the world
can be said to surpass that of the city of
New York in the promptness and cheerful¬
ness with Avliich taxes are paid. If evidence
of these characteristics is wanting, a visit
to the tax receivers ofiBce during the months
of October and November would be enough
to satisfy the most incredulous. The tax
A'^aluations of real estate and personal pro¬
perty—that is to say, the arbitrary valuations
set up by the Commissioners of Taxes, as the
basis on which the annual budget of the
city is levied, is an item of all-important and
transcendent interest to our citizens.

Before determining the rate per cent of
taxation, it becomes necessary to establish
the gross valuations of real and personal
property. It Avill be readily seen that the
rate of taxation may be relatively low; yet,
by excessive or exaggerated valuations the
tax payer will be mulcted, perhaps un¬
consciously, in a heavy sum of taxation.
And vice versa, a low scale of valuations of
property would lead to a correspondingly
higher per centage of taxation. It Avould be
interesting to study in detail the whole sub¬
ject of the basis of our taxation. It is well
knoAATi that in all the past history of our
city, the methods and systems, whereby this
aggregate of value has been determined and
estabhshed, are of the most crude and hap¬
hazard description. Corrupt influences, es¬
pecially under the Tweed administration
crept in and modified these values largely.
Personal considerations, party influence and
ignorance have all done their share in derang¬
ing the basis of valuation, and it is safe to
say that the values established and adopted
for the purposes of taxation in this city, are
the most incongruous, irrational and un¬
scientific, not to say untrustworthy that can
be imagined. Cases frequently occur of ad¬
joining lots of equal size and value showing a
large disparity in the tax valuation assessed.
It is Avell known that the Astor and Stewart
estates are assessed very heaA'ily.iQ the mat¬
ter of real estate—^the valuations running up





to the fuU market prices of to-day. Yet in
the matter of their personal estates, they are
made to respond in very inconsiderable
amounts, although it is surmised that their
personal property largely exceeds the value
of their real estate.

The present commissioners are the ablest
and most intelligent that haA'e ever presided
over this department of our city government.
They represent a happy admixture of prac¬
tical and theoretical knowledge. Messrs.
Wheeler and Hayward are trained, accom¬
plished and successful merchants ; while Mr.
Andrews is a recognized authority in this
country and in Europe, particularly on the
subject of municipal taxation; a science
which he has grappled with and completely
mastered. Under their management the
oflSice has been thoroughly systematized and
put in good working order, accompanied by
that best result of practical reform—increas¬
ed efficiency at reduced running expenses.
So much for the perfunctory discharge of
their duties. The subjects, however, of the
standards and methods of valuation have
scarcely been touched by these gentlemen,
for the simple reason that they were called
to office in the midst of dire calamity and
overwhelming disaster in the real estate
market, as well as in the business community
at large, and their principal problem for the
last year or tAvo has been to contrive ways
and means of sustaining the valuations al¬
ready assessed upon property, so as to avoid
an apparent and inordinate increase in the
rate per cent of taxation, which would fol¬
low from any wide-spread reduction of ex¬
isting valuations in connection with the
growing and irrepressible annual budget of
the city. We could wish the whole sub¬
ject of the rcAision of tax valuations placed
in no better hands than those of the present
commissioners. But in view of the proved
inequitable, partial and discriminating char¬
acter of the existing valuations Ave feel
bound to urge upon the real estate commu-
rdty the necessity of taking up the subject
in its entirety, reorganizing the cornplex sys¬
tem, and readapting the valuations to the
new order of prices which is gradually be¬
coming established in the real estate market.
It is well-known that in former years the
commissioners claimed to assess only sixty
per cent, of the current market values. This
course was adopted with a view of providing
against the sudden and capricious turns of
the market, believing that sixty per cent, of
then existing values would be reasonably
stable and reliable through all seasons. Now
that real estate has declined on an average
of thirty or forty per cent, it is interesting
to know whether the coinmissioners propose





to make a corresponding reduction in their
assessed A-alues. It is intimated, that they
have determined, for the present at least, to
maintain their old A^aluations intact on the
ground that they are allowed by law to assess
the full value of property, and that sixty
per cent of old values at which property now
stands assessed, represents to-day no more
than fulLvalue of property, and hence they
propose to allow the valuations to remain un¬
disturbed.

It were weU for tax-payers to be made
aware if it be the case, that in future real
estate is to be assessed at its full market val¬
ue, and requisite in the highest degree that
all owners shall be made to conform to this
rule without partiality, preference or ex¬
emption. A case was reported to us recently
of a bank building on Third avenue which
was formerly assessed at $60,000. It was
sold last spring for |55,000 at auction. There-
Aipon the purchaser claimed and actuaUy
obtained a reduction of the tax valuation
thereon to |38,000. This building has re¬
cently been sold by the last purchaser at
$85,000, realizing a profit of $30,000. It re¬
mains to be seen whether the tax valuation
will be increased or at least reinstated in con¬
sequence of this sudden and remarkable rise
in market value. We appeal to the Commis¬
sioners to define their pohcy in respect to
these tax valuations. They will not be al¬
lowed to make fish of one and flesh of an¬
other. Let the rule apply universally, if re¬
ductions of value are to be the order of the
day. Let aU our citizens have the benefit of
those reductions. Any partiality or prefer¬
ence shown in times like these wiU reflect
discreditably upon the Commissioners and
imperil their weU-won honors. Our OAvn
opinion is, that the times and the situation
call for a radical, comprehensive and scien¬
tific revision and readjustment of the entire
subject.

We venture to suggest a plan or course
of procedure that will define more clearly
our sense of the problem. It is, that the
whole island be plotted out in sections of
convenient size, and that the values of the
bare vacant land within each of these sec¬
tions should be determined by experts, and
that valuations of land so established and
arranged should be classified and held to be
standard and unvarjdng in each of the sev¬
eral disti-icts. The buildings or improve¬
ments should be made the subject of separate
classifications and estimates. The advantage
of diAddingthe city into these convenient
sections would be the grouping of certain
neighborhoods closely allied and subject to
about the same set of influences, while the
separation of- the land value from the build