Real  Estate   Record





AND BUILDERS^ GUIDE.





YoL. XXYI.





NEW TOEK, SATUKDAT, JULY 17, 1880.





No. 644





Published Weekly by

Clje Seal €bMz Mitoxti S^ssonatbii.

TERMS.

ONE YEAR, in advance__SIO.OO.

Communications should be addressed to

C.   AV.   SWEET,

No. 1-37 Broadway

-THE OUTLOOK IN REAL ESTATE.
"What of the fall business?" That, now, is
the question among those anxious to bridge over
the sultry season. Anticipations run high, very
high, among those whose ideas in regard to
real estate are worth listening to. And yet it is
a fallacy to suppose that any wild era of specula¬
tion will set in during the coming autumn. Of
oue thing we may assure our readers, that any
one who has a good house to sell, in an eligible
locality, will be able to dispose of it advantage¬
ously during the fall season, for there is every
indication now that, owing to the constant in¬
crease of population, there will be an unprece¬
dented demand for houses. As to vacant lots,
some little time will probably have to elapse be¬
fore the views of holders and buyers can be
reconciled. It looks, owing to the increased
scarcity of the number of lots on Manhattan
Island, as if holders will ultimately get what
they ask, but it will not be in the fall. Time will
be necessary to educate investoi-s up to the actual
market value, and it may be spring before that is
accomplished. The outlook certainly is very flat¬
tering and, judging by the reports that reach us
from Newport, Saratoga and Long Branch,
where so many capitalists are now sojourning,
there appears to be once more a general desire on
their part to invest in real estate. The opinion
also seems to prevail, that he who invests now
will find his profits accruing during the next five
and six years. Certain it is, that during that
period, at least, there will not be a decline of
prices for Manhattan Island lots, if, indeed, there
will not be a rise sooner than is now anticipated,
when the decision in regard to the site of the
World's Pair is announced during the coming
fall months.





It was an extraordinary event in the history of
the real estate market, when, on a scorching day
like Tuesday last, the Exchange Salesroom was
crowded with bidders and buyers, all anxious to
secure the business aud tenement property on the
East Side. The crowded attendance, though not
by any means improving the not over-pleasant
atmosphere of the low room, nevertheless acted
like a charm upon the regular habitues of the
market, and their hopes for the future rose as
high if not higher than the mercury,
--------------. f »I— »—.—.

To cripple the resources of financial institutions
or largo corporations does not only injure those
concerns but leads to ultimate dismay and disas¬
ter in business circles. This is what the constant
tinkering with the tax laws of this State will lead
to. To escape undue taxation has been from time
immemurial a principle of self-preservation not
onlj on the part of individuals but also of corpora¬





tions. Modern commerce depends to a large
extent upon facilities obtained from financial
institutions and if these latter are crippled, com¬
merce must also suffer. It is indeed a pity to see
for instance the renewed attempts of the tax
commissioners to enforce the spirit of a law
which the United States Supreme Court has
declared unconstitutional. The new law, passed
during the last session of the legislature, is said to
be almost identical with the law of 1866, and
hence in endeavoring to resist the enforcement of
a law which is not valid, no fault can be found
with the banks of New York. For years they
have tamely submitted to an unjust law and their
combined capital, during that time, was reduced
$26,000,000. This loss of capital injures business
generally, and it will not come back until there is
an end to the confused condition of the State laws.
Why can there not in this Empire Stafee, where
so much intelligence is centred, be found sufficient
talent to create a system of tax-laws as generous
as those enacted in the younger Western States ?
There, everything is done to invite capital. Here,
everything is done to repel it. How much longer
this Empire State must uphold such ruinous
principles is a question well worthy the attention
of bodies like the Chamber of Commerce, so that
the people will see and understand how important
it is to have able men at Albany, as, after all, it is
only the legislature that can give relief.





Though the official figures of the city census
have not yet been announced, enough is known
to show the percentages of increase in certain
localities. As population always brings along
wealth and a demand for ground and dwellings,
it will be interesting to holders of real estate to
show the growth of certain wards since 1870.
The Nineteenth and Twenty-second wards are
the banner wards. The increase in the popula¬
tion of the Nineteenth is 73,266, or 85 per cent.;
that in the Twenty-second 45,917, or 45 per cent.
The increase in the Twelfth Ward is 34,989. The
region lying between Fortieth street and Twenty-
sixth street, known as the Twentieth and Twenty-
first wards, has increased 22,289, almost equally
divided between the two wards. The increase
from Twenty-sixth street to Fourteenth street,
going east and west, is only 11,000, while the sec¬
tion lying below Fourteenth street to Houstou
street, east and west, including a vast tenement
population, has increased 21,000. Of course, in
the lower wards there is no perceptible increase,
there being a falling off in the Fourth Ward to
the extent of nearly 3,000, while again there is an
increase in the First Ward amounting to over
2,000. This must be attributed to the large num¬
ber of new buildmgs where janitors and their
families reside, and form a unique population,
who look upon the Battery as their Central Par^





The condition of our great thoroughfare, dur¬
ing the two midday hours of the excessively hot
summer weather we now experience, ought to
set people a thinking what is required to, at least,
provide some shade along Broadway between
twelve and two o'clock. During these two hours
it is absolutely dangerous to walk any length of





time along that street, so fierce are the rays of
the sun, v/ith no shady side anywhere. The
street is too wide to be shaded at the noonhour
by the stately buildings and too narrow to permit
the planting of trees. Why, then, not have uni¬
versal recourse once more to the old-fashioned
awning, which, though it may be a relic of the
bygone days of New Amsterdam, nevertheless
would guard the health of our active generation,
whose brains are, at least, worth protecting as
much as those of our Dutch ancestors.





The decreased amount of liabilities for the first
six months of ISSO, as furnished by Dun, Barlow
& Co., is certainly a subject of congratulation for
the business community. To know that mer¬
chants throughout the Union have lost in the ag¬
gregate only $33,000,000 during the past six
months, against 565,000,000 during the same
period of 1879, and $130,000,000 in the same
period of 1878, is certainly reassuring and im¬
plies a very excellent condition of prosperity.
Nevertheless, there is not that pro rata decrease
in the amount of liabilities that we might expect
from the decreased number of failures, and,
singular to say, for the second quarter of ISSO the
average liability is actually higher than that of
1879, namely, $1S,8S4 for this year, against $14,-
776 for last year. The average liability for the
whole year of 1S78, one of the very worst, was
only $21,000. While, therefore, there has been a
diminution in the sum total of losses, it seems to
us to be as yet a debateable question whether we
have yet arrived at a period where credits can be
safely extended so long as the amount lost by an
individual failure remains at about the same
ratio as it was during a time of general de¬
pression.

------.ruiiiMi    «t»

TELEGRAPH POLES AS REAL ESTATE.

The opinion of Attorney-General Ward upon
the novel question whether telegraph poles are to
be assessed as real estate will probably llud
general acceptance. The learned attorney-general
says : " It is entirely clear to my mind that these
telegraph structures are ' articles erected upon
and affixed to the land,' so as to create an interest
therein, and are, to the extent of the value there¬
of, kmd of the telegraph company erecting them,
and as such liable to taxation. And it is the duty
of the assessors of the several towns and wards of
this State to assess the same as land to the value
thereof, so far as any of their lines extend through
their resi^ective assessment districts. I have
given the question which you have presented
careful consideration, for the reason, that as far
as I have been able to discover, no decision upon
the precise question before us has been made by
any of the courts of this State, and the question
therefore is a new on 3. I am greatly aided, how¬
ever, in reaching this conclusion by the opinion
of the Court of Appeals in People ex ret., etc., v.
CassUy, 46 N. Y. 46, which holds iu this language:
" The term ' lands' as used in the statute in
relation to assessment and taxation (1 R. S. 360,
§ § 1, 2), includes such an interest in real estate as
will protect the erection, or affixing, and posses¬
sion of buildings and fixtures thereon, though un¬
accompanied by the fee, and such interest with
the buildings and fixtures may be assessed to the
owner thereof.' See, also, 74 N. Y. 365, and 52
Barb. 105. It is also held in People ex rel. New
York Elevated Hailway Ournpany v. Commissionei's
of Taxes, decided by General Term, First Depart¬
ment, and reported in 19 Hun, 46Q, that '•founda¬
tions for piers or columns placed in a public street