Real  Estate   Record





AND BUILDERS' GUIDE.





Vol. XXVII.





NEW YORK, SATURDAY, MAY 7, 1881





No. 686





Published .Weekly by The

Real Estate Record Association

TERMS:
ONE TEAR, in advance.....$6.00

Communications should be addressed to

C. W. SWEET, 137 Broadway.

J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager.





There are certain remarkable features
about the real eiitate market which will
attract widespread attention as soon as their
meaning is fully understood. If our readers
will take a copy of to-day's Real Estate
Record and compare it with any previous
number for the last eight years, they will be
struck by the following facts:

First. The extraordinary increase in the
number of transfers of real estate.

Second. The almost entire absence of fore-
•closure suits and sales, once so common as to
•equal in number the voluntary transactions.

Third. The satisfaction of old judgments
and the very few new ones entered against
■delinquent debtors.

Fourth. The reduction in the number of
mechanics' liens, and the increase in the
number of satisfied liens.

Fifth. The very limited number of assign¬
ments for the benefit of creditors.

In other words, it shows that people are
out of debt; that they are paying up their
old bills and are assuming no new obliga¬
tions they cannot meet. It will also be
noticed that the 5 per cent, rate is becoming
<juite common in the new mortgages. The
real estate interest was never in a more sat¬
isfactory state, nor was the outlook ever
so promising.





The pressure on our columns, due to the
favors of our advertising patrons, forces us
to omit this week a great deal of interesting
reading matter. Never were there so many
advertisements in The Real Estate Rec¬
ord, and the probability is that they will
oontinue to increase in consequence of the
additional business in real estate. This
week also, the conveyances and mortgages
are exceptionally heavy, and hence
we are forced to give a forty-four
page paper. What is actually done in
the market, being of prime importance, we
give that to the exclusion of mere comments.
The number of transfers shows a great deal
has been doing in real estate; the most
wholesome sign is that very few of these
transactions represent foreclosure suits or
forced sales. The list is made up of pur-
•chases for permanent investment. There is
no evidence as yet of any " boom," or any
Biiarked advance in price; there is still
plenty .^-of cheap property in the market.
Eight, nine and ten per cent can still be in-
«jired by purchasing well located realty.





The Herald and other papers still con¬
tinue their absurd misstatements about the
health of New York city. One of the papers
«veii publishes a map, showing the locations
where people have died. It proves just
nothing at all, except'that in a city of 1,300,-
<)0p people, a certain number die in different





parts of that city. We have passed through
a very severe winter and an unusual number
of aged and ailing people, have died in all
the centres of population. New York has
suffered no more than other large cities, and
it is scandalous that our own local papers
should seek to discredit the city that sup¬
ports them, by representing it as in a worse
condition, with regard to its deathrate, than
its other commercial rivals. If New York
was more unhealthy than its neighbors, it
would not be just to the public to keep the
fact concealed. But the Herald, in order to
create a sensation or make a newspaper
point, has emphasized the increase of deaths
in New York, without'pointing out that the
same is true of other localities, and can be
accounted for by the exceptionally severe





The fire insurance business ia establishing
itself permanently in Broadwav, between
the City Hall Park and Wall street. The
Niagara has found its headquarters at the
corner of Liberty street and Broadway, and
but few companies in the country will in
time be unrepresented in this section of our
chief thoroughfare. This tendency to spe¬
cialization of business, becomes more mark¬
ed as the city grows older. It is to the con¬
venience of every one concerned, seller as
well as buyer, to have trade concentrated in
certain special centres. Hereafter, people
who want to insure against flre, property in
any part of the Union, wiU be enabled be¬
tween Fulton and Wall street, to have their
pick of a hundred of the best companies in
the country.





The stock market this week has been a
bull one. Many large operators in the street
were bears, and every possible argument
was used to keep down and depress prices.
AU the most potent influences in the street
were used to force investors to sell their
holdings and keep the public away from the
stock market, and there were many argu¬
ments that could be used with effect by the
bears. We have had a severe winter, a late
spring, destructive freshets, and then we
have literally had no spring trade in this
city. But last Saturday the buU campaign
was opened and the bears ingloriously routed.
Prices have been steadily marked up, and
there does not seem to be any cloud in the
sky until the time comes when the crop
question wiU be definitely settled. Money is
abundant and easy, the emigration is enor¬
mous, and the outside public are again dab¬
bling in the street. The Government is dis¬
bursing a great deal of money, and wiU con¬
tinue to do so. Then, very important con¬
solidations are in order, and all the active
forces in the street are engaged in blowing
up prices. AU the indications at present
point to a strong and advancing market.
There may be a catastrophe, but there is
nothing to warrant a speculator in supposing

that there is any great danger ahead.

--------•--------

The very remarkable success of the subscrip¬
tions to the Mutual Union Telegraph Company,





is largely due to the exceptional ability of the
firm which had the marketing of the bonds.
George Wm. BaUou, the head of the house is
from Boston, where he successfully carried
through some very notable financial entei-prises.
But he foimd the chief city of New England did
not give him "scope and verge" enough, and so
he came to the financial centre of the country
and here he speedily made his mark. He has
the advantage in all his undertakings, of having
a powerful Boston following. But New York is
the proper headquarters for raising money to
carry on works of national importance. We are
just entering upon an era of great enterprises
and new firms are needed, which wiU represent
the younger race of bankers. Methods of busi¬
ness change from time to time and firms which
have been successful in one period, are apt to
grow into a certain routine -which limits their
usefulness when new exigencies arise. Men
like Jay Cooke were needed to float the Govei'n-
ment loans in war times. The bankers who
floiirished before the rebellion, were at a loss how
to deal with the new epoch. Since the war, the
great Government loans have been handled by
syndicates, and it is as yet an open question
whether Secretary Windom will be able to re¬
fund the 5 and 6 per cent obligations of the
Government, without the aid of the bankei-s.
But we are living in the beginning of a new era.
From being a debtor, the United States is becom¬
ing a creditor nation. The money of the world
is coming here for investment, and there is a
splendid chance for young, sagacious and enter-
pi-ising firms, such as that of George Wm. Bal¬
lon & Co. to make their mark. It is worthy of
passing remark,'that every one who has invested
so far in the securities marked by this firm, has
made a great deal of money.

The loan of the new telegi-aph company was
wisely confined to investments of less than
$10,000. It was practically taken up before the
books were opened and had the call been for
twice the amount instead of $5,000,000, it would
have been subscribed for in two days. The
bonds are already quoted at a handsome pre¬
mium.





At last the Tribune building is to be extended
according to the original plan. It will be con¬
structed in the solid and substantial style of the
present building. Forty-six feet will be added to
the frontage on Spruce street, thence the build¬
ing will run back 169 feet through to Frankfort
street and face that'street with a front of 28 feet,
9 inches. The extension will be of the same height
as the original building, viz., ten stories, with
cellar underneath. The design of the Spruce
street is a continuation pf the present building.
The Frankfort street front is to be of cast iron set
between the wall-heads of the longitudinal walls.
The building will be fire-proof throughout, and
all the beams will be supported by brick-work.
The interior is to be finished in hard wood. The
halls will be tiled and have marble wainscoting;
an additional elevator is to be put for the exclus¬
ive use of the Tribune employees. The interior
is to be so arranged that small oifices can be
rented separately or in suites.

A novel feature will be the arrangement of a
ladies' toilet room on each floor, something that
has not yet been done in any other building. The
whole of the extension, with the exception of the
cellar and top floor, will ba for rent. The cost is
$228,000. The structure wiU be completed April
1st, 1882. Under the main entrance arch to the
Tribune counting-room wiU be set the statue of
Horace Greely.   Work wUl commence at once