Real  Estate   Record





AND BUILDERS' GUIDE.





Vol. XXYII.





NEW YOEK, SATUEDAT, APEIL 9, 1881





No. 682





Published Weekly by The

Real Estate Record Association

TERMS:

OIVE YEAR, in advance.....$6.00

Communications should be addressed to

C. W. SWEET, 137 Broadway.

J. T. LINDSEY, Busmess Manager.





The rates for fire insurance are hardening
and the companies are now doing a more
profit able business than for many years
past. This is as it should be. It is not
best that any necessary business be car¬
ried on at a loss. We are, however, ap¬
proaching a time when conflagrations are
frequent, for it is a noticeable fact that the
close of the last renting quarter in the year
is marked by a relatively great number of
fires. Why this is so, needs no explanation
to the fire insurance companies. There is a
great deal of building going on throughout
the country, and this naturally adds to the
demands made upon the fire insurance com¬
panies. There is nothing to warrant any
diminution of rates, and, while there is no
reason to expect a return to the charges
made during inflation times, the companies
at present in existence, whose character is
well e8tablished,*'need have no fear but that
the growing business of the country and its
increased wealth, with the new buildings in
course of erection, will give them a con¬
stantly growing custom at remunerative
figures.





FOR SPECULATIVE INVESTORS.
We have repeatedly pointed out the possi¬
bilities for investment in Southern State
securities. J t is certain thafc some time or
other the more progressive and growing of
the Southern States would seek to rehabili¬
tate their credit and would make composi¬
tion with their creditors. The cerisus
shows that the growth of the South in popu¬
lation has not been behind the rest of the
country, while the $6,000,000 bales of cot¬
ton produced during the past season tells
the story of the potential wealth of that sec¬
tion of our country. All of the Southern
States are not under a cloud financially.
The credit of Georgia is deservedly high and
the state bonds of Texas are far above par.
And now Tennessee comds to the front as a
debt-paying state. Six months ago the
evidences of her state debt were sold for 30 ;
to-day they are worfch over 70. This has
naturally attracted attention to the securi¬
ties of Louisiana, North and South Carolina.
Virginia and West Virginia, all of which
have recently advanced in price, and with
good reason. The great railway interest of
the country has its ramifications all through
the South, and the urgent call for state aid
to local improvements will bring home to
the intelligence of the defaulting states the
necessity for confidence in state financial
honor at the money centres. The Chesa¬
peake (fc Ohio, the Louisville & Nashville,
the Chattanooga, the Chicago, St. Louis &
New Orleans, and the other minor roads
through the South are having their influ¬





ence upon the states they pass through, and
it is as certain as anything in the future that
every Southern state will seek to have its
credit restored, so that it can borrow money
for new local improvements.

Of course there is a choice, and investors
would do well to give the preference to those
■tates in which the need for local improve¬
ments is the greatest. Louisiana and Ar¬
kansas are such states. Virginia, in due
time, will doubtless come to the front again
in vindication of its state honor, but its
recent course has not been satisfactory. It
is the cotton and sugar growing portions of
the South which have been most prosperous,
and Virginia doubtless has not profited by
the good times as much as other states.
Still, Richmond is a growing city, and the
new railroads are vitalizing portions of the
Old Dominion heretofore inert. The day is
coming when there will be a flood of white
population to Virginia and North Carolina.
The securities of both those states must
gradually, but surely, appreciate.

A GOOD TIME TO BUY.

So far there has been no " boom" in real
estate. There have been a greater number
of transactions than formerly, there has been
a moderate advance in prices, some specu¬
lative purchases have been made, but there
is as yet no speculation proper in the real
estate market. The sales of the past week
tell the story. Unimproved lots can be
bought at moderate prices, and houses can
be secured at figures which will give a hand¬
some return in rentals. In other words, the
condition of the market is wholesome, and
such as ought to attract prudent people.
That the time wiU come when prices will
be high and speculation rampant, every one,
acquainted with the market, looks for con¬
fidently. Indeed it was supposed that the
commencement of the speculation might
show itself this spring ; but while dealers
have done a very fair business, and the num¬
ber of conveyances have increased to higher
figures, there has been no evidence of fever-
iahness or unusual excitement.

Of course, the lots which everybody want¬
ed have advanced largely in prices ; where
building has been active and the location
very desirable, the figures obtained in 1870
and 1871 have been reached. But although
the population of the city has increased
twenty-eight per cent, since that time and
local improvements, then projected, have
been since completed, weU placed lots can be
purchased north and west of the park at much
lower figures than were asked and paid ten
years ago. There has been an apparant large
advance in some locations within the past
three years. There has been a handsome ad¬
vance^ in improved property within that
period; but it is safe to say that three-fourths
of the real estate in New York to-day, is much
cheaper than it was from 1869 to 1871, and
yet in the meantime our elevanted road
system has been put into operation. True,
those were paper money times ; but securi¬
ties on our Stock Exchange are very much
higher to-day than they were twelve years
since.

For the first three months of 1881 the in¬





crease of conveyances over 1880 on this is¬
land was only 93; while there was an actual
decrease in transactions in the annexed dis¬
trict of 62. But the property sold during
that three months for $11,519,000 more than
the property purchased in 1880. Of course,
this does not give the figures accurately on
account of the great number of nominal
transfers.

It is mischievous to legitmate business to
give the impression that there is any unusual
activity or speculation in real estate. We
are, it is true, building more houses. Two
thousand and sixty-five were erected in 1879;
2,252 were completed in 1880, and we believe
that over 3,000 houses will be constructed
during the course of the present year. Even
these figures do not tell the whole story, for
the buildings erected comprise many vast
apartment houses, some of which accommo¬
date twenty and thirty families each. Our
population increases far more rapidly than
the means to accommodate them with homes;
but the price of labor is steadUy rising, and
the working people will not only be able to
pay better rents, but wiU demand better ac¬
commodations. From a variety of causes,
building materials have not advanced, so
there is ^ large margin of profit in the con¬
struction of new houses for we live in'' bull"
times, and all prices, including rents, will
yet largely advance.

There has been a good deal of resistance to
the increase of rents in aU save the very rich
and choice districts. People who have made
a great deal of money, speculatively, have
not only paid liberal prices for well located
residence property ; they have also submitted
to a large advance in rents. There has been
a moderate advance for the houses occupied
by the middle class ; but while the laboring
classes have been actively employed, they
have resisted an advance in rents on the
ground that they were not better paid. But
it will be found that skilled artisans, indeed,
all classes of working people, are not only
fully employed, but have recently had such
additions to their wages as would enable
them to live in more comfort.

The outlook is promising. This island wiU
have 400,000 more people in 1891 than it has
to-day. By that time the vacant spaces
along the line of the elevated roads and north
and west of the park, will be covered with
new buildings. There is a margin of from ten
to two hundred per cent, in tmimproved city
property. The person that buys to-day is
siu-e of an investment which will not depre¬
ciate by the lapse of time.





There is one department of our city
government worthy of aU praise. We al¬
lude to the fire department. It does its
work so efficiently and quietly, that our
property holders do not realize all the good
it is doing. All our older citizens remember
the riotous and inefficient volunteer depart¬
ment which the present system replaced.
A fire, then, was a noisy affair. The bells
clamored, the engines were dragged by men,
fires were frequent, riots common and much
of a corruption of our city politics dates
from the old engine houses. " BUl" Tweed
was the foreman of "Big Six," and a sur-