Real  Estate   Record





AND BUILDERS' GUIDE.





Vol. XXIV.





NEW YOKE, SATURDAY, .3 ULY 19, 1879.





No. 592.





Published Weekly by

TERMS.
ONE 'VEAU. in advance....$10.00.
Comniimications should be addressed to

C.   IV.  SAVEET,

Nos. 345 AND 347 Broadway





CHARACTERISTICS OF THE NEW SPEC¬
ULATION.

Real estate men and citizens generally are dailj-
becoming impressed %vith the fact that we are
now in the midst of a notable and genuine leal
estate speculation. What was contemptuously
spoken of in the beginning of the year as a spurt,
by the lapse of time has proved to be a prolonged
and woU-sustained movement, slowly ramifying
fiom the centre to the extremities of the real es¬
tate market. This movement took its start, and
will undoubtedly find its climax, in the best resi¬
dence part of the city. We shall watch its career
and await its culmination with anxious interest
and shall endeavor to keep our readers informed
of its vicissitudes or eventualities.

At present we propose to speak of some of its
more noticeable characteristics, and prominent
among them are:

1st. Its Inverted Order.—In all past seasons
of real estate speculation the movement followed
or ran parallel with a brisk demand for private
residences, being greatly stimulated by a prospec¬
tive scarcity of dwelling accommodations and
taking wholesome root in a well-assured success
of the building craft. In the presenfe instance the
lot market seeni.s to have started off on its own
hook, very much as if the leaders had broken
loose and were galloping away from the wheel
horses. To be sure, in the old residence and build¬
ing (piarters all newly tinished houses were
promptly absorbed during the spring, but at prices
which yielded no immoderate profit to the build¬
ers, and which, in fact, bai-ely afforded them en¬
couragement to embark in new enterprises. The
stock of such houses amounted to less than an or¬
dinary season's supply and buyers evenly tied the
number of houses, leaving no nnsatisfied demand.
In the new residence iiuarter equal luck has failed
to attend active builders. Although they reaped
the benefit of some little overflow of demand,
their large stock of finished houses has undergone
only a slight reduction, and some of the most
meritorious jobs are to-day standing finished and
unsold. The sales that have been made in this
'luarter were at figures only a trifle in excess of
the prices now asked for neighboring vacant lots.
We say, therefore, that a peculiarity of this spec¬
ulation is that lots have taken a marked precedence
over houses, and that the movement is more of an
independent, lot speculation than one predicated
upon success in the building line. Instructive infer¬
ences may be drawn from this statement on -which
it will behoove operators to ponder. For the pres¬
ent it is sufficient to record the fact, without fur¬
ther comment, that lots in both of the growing
residence quarters are exceedingly active, while
finished buildings are only moderately so and
have totally failed to keep pace with the move¬





ment in lots. Whether time will adjust and erjual-
ize respective values remains lo be seen. If it
does not, we can imagine with what despair build¬
ers will contemplato the new scale of lot values.

2d. Irs DEFi.virn-EXESs.—The ])aradox just re¬
ferred to may be explained by the further fact
that the present movement has its origin aud sup¬
port principally, if not entirel3^ in a formal ex¬
pression of Ane-.vs by leading and influential citi¬
zens, in raspect to future residence sites. The
scope of the movement is no less than the defini¬
tion of a new fashionable residence quarter,
whereas a short while ago it seemed as though a
decade or two might elapse before the old resi¬
dence quarter would be fully exhausted and com¬
pleted, and the controversy was then an active one
ns to whether the East or West Side would be tho
immediate successor of the central quarter: it is
now determined by the movement of this spring,
promptly and irrevocably, that the district lying
on the east side of the park, particularly that nar-
now belt between Madison and Fifth avenues,
will be tbe elite quarter of the immediate future.
This characteristic amounts to a good deal more
than the mere naming of a district. It signalizes
and defines the limits within which tho.se marvel¬
ous prodigies of lot values may be expected that
have heretofore outstripped and defied analogy,
and given an exceptional celebritj- to choice New
York real estate. Our crop of millionaires may
nob be a large or rapidly growing one, but it is
large enough and seems to possess vigor enough
to dominate tho district which we have indicated,
to confer upon it inevitable and enviable distinc¬
tion, and to infuse into it elements of value which
may be dreamed of but scarcely enumerated.

3d. Its Substantial B^vsis.—The chronic bear
and the wordy commentator on passing events
are equally ready to declare that the present
movement in real estate is too spasmodic, too
energetic, and has already run too wild a course
of inflation to be sound or permanent. These
allegations may be easily sustained and the in¬
ferences to be drawn from them may seem
plausible enough. It must bo remembered, how¬
ever, that this movement begins after nearly six
j'ears, we might say seven years, of almost un¬
broken depression and stagnation in real estate.
That its course should at first betray strongly re¬
actionary impulses, is not surprising. In their
eager rivah*y aud competition for choice sites,
wealthy citizens may have over-stepped the
bounds of common prudence, but the lapse of
time will serve to moderate their zeal as it cer¬
tainly will have the effect to equalize any re¬
markable disparities of value. The single de¬
plorable feature of the new movement is, that it
will speedily create in the new quarter a condi¬
tion which has often existed, and which to-day
exists in a marked degree in the old quarter.
The values of vacant land threaten to become
prohibitive of any other use than its purchase
and special improvement by citizens of great
wealth. If land owners in the new quarter de¬
sire this consummation they have it in their
power to bring it about at an early day. Al¬
ready the quoted values are beyond the reach of
prudent and solvent builders intending to- build
for the market. The staff of honest speculative
builders will not only be excluded from the two





quarters, but will be completelj- dispei-sed and
driven into other occupations i'" land prices con-
tinuo to be held in disproportion to the share
assi<ziied to them in tbe marketing of con>i>leted
building productions.

Tbo substantial bn.=;is of the present movement
is amply demonstrated by the uuipiestionable
and undoubted soundness and respectability of its
leaders and pioneers. To as;.sume that the recent
stilting of values is tho result of a wild escapade
ou the part of impecunious speculators would bo
to hit wide of the mark. A movement which
has been initiated and sustained by such eminent
and conservative citizens a.i Arnold »t Constable.
William H. DeForrest, W. A. Thomp.son, A. IT.
Barney, and others, in the purcba.se of lots, ami
by Messr.s. Henry Havec.eyer, David Dows,Isbam,
Bishop, Qiiintard, E-ichard Arnold, and others, in
the selection of residence sites, and projection
of private mansions, need not be deemed lacking
in substantial character. These gentlemen exer-
ci.se financial and social influence in their respec¬
tive spheres which wiU confer upon their exam¬
ples effective potentialitj'. Aside from the quality
of the names %vhich appear in recorded transac¬
tions, convincing evidence of the strength of the
movement is alVorded in the remarkable extent
to which the use of mortgages is e-chewed. -In
isolated cases large mortgages have been given,
but the wealth of the parties is so tangible and
assured that the mortgages may be regarded as
mere temporary accommodations. The bulk of
transactions also indicates the momentum of the
speculation. A dozen corners on iladison avenue
have cbangeil hands, and one whole block, several
half blocks, and innnmerable parcels of interior
lots, raugiug from four to ten.

The vigor of the upward tendency may be
illustrated b3- a single citation. On Sevent3--
sixth street, between Fifth and Madison avenues,
six lots were sold early in the year at $30,000,
resold at i:()0,O00, and later on disposed of. with
a building loan, at ?!00,000. Finally, the specu¬
lation is organized upon what is practically a
gold basis.

A movement so ausuiciouslj' begun cannot fail
to reflect and irradiate a wholesome influence
over the entire body of metropolitan real estate.
It is warrantable to declare that tbe decline iu
our commodity has been completely checked and
overcome, and that the upward inarch has begun,
rarapantl}'iu the best (piarter, and inuipie^tly in
all other quarters, of the city.

THE VANDERBILT BOGY,
It is worth considering whether the outcry
which has been raised over the report of the
Rapid Transit Commissioners is deserved. As
yet the public has not been put in po3ses.siun of
the plans of the Commissioners in their entirety.
In other words, while the routes have been laid
out, the conditions as to fares and time are not
yet known officially. It might as well be under¬
stood, firstasatlast, that there is a very powerful
interest opposed to rapid transit on the other
side of the Harlem River, unless it can be made
use of for the benefit of tbe existing elevated
roads.

What seems to have excited the most wrath is
the proposition to run an elevated road from the