Real  Estate   Record





AND BUILDERS' GUIDE.





Vol. XXIV.





NEW TORK, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1879.





No. 602.





Published Weekly by

W^^t Seal Estate Setorlr ^ssccmttoit.

TERMS.

ONK YEAR. Jn advance___SIO.OO.

Communications should be addressed to

C.   W.   SAVEET.
Nos. 345 AND 347 Broadway





THE FORECLOSURES—A GRATIFYING
EXHIBIT.
We publish below the totals of the foreclcsure
sales since and including 1S71. It will be noticed
that in that year there wei-e only 674 foreclosures.
That number steadily increased up to 1S7G, when
they were 2,.533. Since then there has been a
gratifying decrease, and for the present year, es¬
timating three months, we do not believe there
will be over 1,.500. The following are the totals:
1871, total foreclosures from Jan. 1, to Dec. 31. 071
W-V2,     "             ••                      "              "        .    1,012

1873.      "             "                      "              "        .    1,152

1874.      "            "                      "              "        .    J.521
187.5,      "              "                         "                "        .    1.7.M

1876,      "             "                      •'              ••        .    2,bH:i

1877.      "             "                      "              "            2 359

1875.      "             "                        "               '•        ■    2*378
187'J,     "             "            8 months........ 1.213

■'    estimate    300—1,513
The following comparisons are interesting :

1877,  No. foreclo.sures, Jan. to Aug., inclusive   1.5fiO

1878,    "             "             ••             ••            "          ],(i.',r

1879,    "             •'             "             "            "        ilaia
The foreclosures for the month of August, 1S77,

'78 and '7!) foot up as follows;

1877.  No. foreclosures in month of Aupust......      22G

1878.    ••         »                   "                •'     .......      20,

1879.    "          "                   "                "     .......      Ill

It will thus be seen that from every point of
view the number of foreclosure sales are steadily
decreasing, and we question if the year ISSO will
see more than 900 forced transfers of property in
tin's market. This is one of the surest indications
that we have touched " Bed Kock " in real estate
matters. The weak and insolvent have been
weeded out, property has got .iato strong hands,
and although there will be a good deal of real es¬
tate put upon ithe market by lenders, it will be
from pei-sons who have foreclosed mortgages and
who simply wish to realize the monej-- they had
risked in loans. Our lists of judgments and mort¬
gages will not have the same painful interest they
have had for many years back. It is the new
sales and new prices, the advancing market, the
better feeling which will hereafter be the topics
discussed by real estate investors.

-----------------«-»-»-----------------

MINING AND REAL ESTATE.

It is genei-ally expected that when money lias
been made in stocks, merchandise, and general
business.that then the profits will be invested in
real estate. It is noticed that as labor *and realty
are the last to decline in value, so thej' are tho
last to revive after a period of general depression.
Hence it is believed that when the flush times
that are now upon us have run their com se, that
the surplus monies w^ill be invested in real estate.
It is natural that those who have a handsome
sxurplus to their credit in banks should wish to
have something more tangible to show than inter-
e.sts in railroad companies, or stocks of goods in
store. There is a sense of satisfaction in having
your possessions in sight in the shape of good city
lots and handsome city houses, and hence the ar¬
dent speculator in time takes au interest in real
estate.   There may be some little delay, however,





due to tliR heavy investments which are quietlj- as
well as openly being nmde in mining jiioperties.
This business of buying bullion mines in Colorado
or on the Pacific slope is rapidly becoming a
mania. Every second man one meets has either
bought some hundred or thousand shares of a
cheap mining stock, or has " chipped in " with
some friends to buy mining property with a
view to developing and stO(;king it. If he has
done neither he is thinking of doing so, and it is
safe to say that before the end of the winter
three-fourths of the speculatively inclined New
Yorkers will be possessoi-s of mining properties
in whole or in part, all the way beyond the
Jlissouri, and generally in some inaccessible
regiou where it cannot be watched. This new
mania will for a time interfere with investments
in real estate nearer home, but it will be only a
delay. A great deal of monej- so used will be
lost forever : much of it will help to develop the
mineral resources of the countrj-, but it will be at
a .serious costrto those who first invest. Of course
some of the ventures will turn out very profit¬
able, and make a handsome return for those who
are wise in selecting good properties. The .specu¬
lator proper will make money verj- soon, for he
will not deal with the mines themselves, but in
shares that represent them, and in time the profits
made from this business will help the real estate
market. But before <he movement in real estate
has reached anj- .serious point we nmst expect a
large abstraction of capital from tho East to the
West to develop mining propertie.s. Of course,
indirectlj', this is helping the manufacturers of
the East, for the mining machinerj- required,
with the thousand industries that depend upon
the extraction of oi-e, willUead to the investment
of money in manufactures, nnd will enrich a
large class of worthj- mechanics.

Every speculative era seems to result in a
lunacj- in some particular industrj-. Immedi¬
atelj- after the war it was petroleum; before the
panic it was railroad building, but the frenzy for
the present and the coming future promises to be
raining investments, unless, indeed, it is kept
under some wise control. But soon we probably
will hear of great strikes in the mines; of im¬
mense fortunes being made; of the uncovering of
gigantic bonanzas; of the poor man of j-esterday
being the ricli man of to-daj-; people's minds will
thus be inflamed and then will come the era of
excitement and follj-, the floating of fraudulent
schemes endiug^wiih the usual disastrous crash*
This time is distant as yet but we advise our pru¬
dent business men to be very careful and to take
every business precaution before making invest¬
ments in mining property.

The present stock specidations will in time cul¬
minate; such stocks as have passed through the
hard times-with credit—everj- security which
has been able to pay .six per cent,
will, before long, go to par. Seven and
eight per cent securities are good for
ll."} andj,120 per cent, and those transportation
lines which have been able to pay expenses w-ill
be marked up if there is any or the slightest pros¬
pect of dividends. Still the time cannot be very
far distant when there will be nothing more to
" bull" on the market. Very few new- railroads are
being built and the new rooney created after the





stocks have been nmrked up as high as they can
go will naturallj- .seek other chamiels for invest¬
ment. Mining securities, we think, will lirst get
the benefit of this new money and after that
real estate. We believe that at the present prices
realty in New York and its neighborhood and
well located land everj-where is an excellent pur¬
chase. Nothing on the market can be better or
surer.





BROOKLYN COMPi^ICATIONS.

The condition of affairs in Brooklj-nisanj-thing
but reassuring to the tax-paj-ers of that city, or
to such of the general public as is interested in
good municipal government. Brooklyn is in the
control of a powerful ring, ^r rather of two rings,
who have mutual afliliations and relations. The
three newspapers representing public opinion are
practically owned bj- the heads of the rings of
the two parties. They share the city plunder ia
the form of advertisements of which they have a
monopolj-. It makes no difference which of the
two parties is in power the people are plundered
all the same. There is reallj- no choice between
the Republican and Democratic machines, for
both are practically controlled by the same set of
manipulators. The condition of affairs in Brook¬
lyn is especiallj'- disheartening because so much
I»ropertj- is owned by middle-class citizens. That
is to saj-, while some large blocks of residences
are held by corporations and individuals, yet
the number of those who own or liave owned
houses and homes of their own is verj- large. Yet
in a city where property is verj- fairly divided
we find corruption is as rampant as in any muni¬
cipality in the countrj-. Philadelphia, also a city
of homes owned bj- the middle and lower cla.s.ses
so-called, is not rauch better off so far as regards
the efHciency and honestj- of its nmuicipal gov¬
ernment.

Taxation would naturally be high in a new and
growing citj- like Brooklyn, because of the small
amount of commerce it controls. Properly it
should belong to New York, and this city should
share some of the fiimncial burdens of its neigh¬
bor across the water, because the metropolis ab¬
sorbs the commerce transacted by the citizens
and householders of Brooklj-n. Washington is a
very expensive city to govern for tho same reason
as Brooklj-n is. It has wide streets, long avenues
and has neither commerce or manufactures from
which to derive a large income from tiixes. The
nation ought to do better by Washington. It
should pay half its taxes, and New York should
bear some of the burdens of Brooklj-n, for the two
form practically one city. Some of the commerce
which enriches New York should be tributarj- to
tho treasury of the sister city, where there are so
many of the homes of our commercial classes.

The hard times, bad government, rings and
waste have had their natural result in putting
taxation so high in B>-ooklyn that large blocks of
property, generally unimproved, have been for¬
feited on account of the unpaid taxes. The total
amount of such property is very large, and is
rapidly growing larger. The high rate of taxa¬
tion is so great a burden that manj- landowners
are willing to throw their property up rather
than satisfy the tax collectors. This has led to
various schemes for relieving dehnquents of their