Real  Estate   Record





AND BUILDERS' GUIDE.





Vol. XXVIII.





NEW TOEK, SATUEDAT, JULT '60, 1881





No. 698





Published Weekly by The

Real Estate Record Association

TERMS:
OjVE year, ia advance  -.-■•.   $6.00

Communications should be addressed to

C. W. SWEET, 137 Broadway.

J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager.





The Daily papers are talking loosely about
the New York Elevated Company breaking
the Manhattan lease. There seems to be one
fatal objection to this being done just now.
In the agreement the Manhattan has ninety
days in which to make good its default.
There can therefore be no breaking of the
lease until the first of October. It is a very
difficult thing to wipe out the stock of any
road. In all the reconstructions of railway
properties from '73 down, there are only two
noted instances on record of the wiping out
of the stock of a road. One was in the case
of the Missouri Paciflc, and the other that
of the Boston, Hartford & Erie. The dis¬
credited stock of the latter has, even now, a
market value. When the stock of Manhattan
becomes low enough, we judge some scheme
will be proposed to keep it alive. The stock
Mr. Cyrus W. Field sold at from 60 to 70, he
will will probably be willing to take back
under 15;





have also decided not to give authority for
building the road up Third avenue, in the
Twenty-third Ward, until the money is sub¬
scribed to do thfe work. But is it not time
for the Suburban Rapid Transit Company to
begin actual work?





They are renovating old St. Paul's Church.
The upper part of the steeple is to be painted
in a sombre hue, and the ball and the
weather vane is to be regilt. It is uot in¬
tended to made the old church any hand¬
somer than of yore. When this church was
erected, in 1763, Grreenwich street wa;s the
bank of the Hudson River and there was an
open field from it up to the church. The
first sermon in it was preaclied by Rev. Dr.
Auchmuty on October 1, 1766.





The underground roads do not seem to be
making much progress. Meetings are held
and projects discussed, but there does not
seem to be any money forthcoming. If
elevated roads, the most pleasant inter-
mural traveling in the world, do not pay, it
is absurd to suppose that an immensely
costly underground tunnel would make any
return upon the enormous capital which
would be required to construct it. Nothing
has been heard of the Arcade scheme, since
Governor Cornell signed the amendments to
the Beach charter, which made it possible
to work out that splendid scheme. It would
cost a great deal of money and that probably
is what is the matter.





The proposition of William H. Vanderbilt
to pay $500,000 for the Roman Catholic Or¬
phan Asylum on Fifth avenue, will, it is
said, be accepted. The building is out of place
on Fifth avenue, and the money could be
better spent elsewhere. If Mr. Vanderbilt
makes a fine park out of the block between
Fifty-first and Fifty-second streets, Fifth and
Madison avenues, it will no doubt be laid
out in the most artistic hianner. It cannot
help but be partly public and of course will
not bo enclosed so that its beauties canno*
be seen. Mr. John C. McCarthy, the Treas¬
urer of the Asylum, admits that au offer has
been made and says it would be a good thing
for the city, as it would add to the taxable

ground.

■------------♦-•-*---------------

The new Rapid Transit Commission seems

to have come to the conclusion that a rapid

transit road must not be constructed over

the  present  Tliird  Avenue bridge.   They





money, but the owner of unincumbered real
estate on this island or across the Harlem,
will leave a heritage to his children that will
constantly increase in value.





A COMPARISON.
The following table shows the amounts
involved in the real estate sales and mort¬
gages from January 1st to July 23d for the
last six years. The figures are accurate, as
they are taken directly from our official files
of conveyances and mortgages, published in
the Real Estate Record:

CONVEYANCES.               MOKTOAOES.

1876..........    $.53,416,'3H3                  $43,495,739

1877..........      44,609,463                    6l;i54,752

1878..........      45,277,813                    23,571,271

1879..........      49,712,123                    23,948,781

1880..........      75,314,339                    49,103,0i2

1881..........    126,848,667                    76,775,118

The above tells the story of the activity
in real estate in New York city during the
past two years. In 1877 real estate struck
low water mark in New York. It is a nota¬
ble circumstance that in that year the mort¬
gages reached a very high figure; but the
foreclosure suits culminated that year, and
the two following years the new mortgages
amounted to less than $24,000,000 a year,
against $61,000,000 in 1877. The tide turned
in 1879, when the official purchases are re¬
corded at about $50,000,000; in 1880 they in¬
creased to over $75,000,000, and during the
same period this year up to nearly $127,000,-
000. Of course these figures do not tell
the whole story, as there are many large
transactions where the pi-ice is kept secret
or reported as nominal. This perhaps is
offset in a measure by other rei)orted sales,
in which a figure above the true one is
given. It is, however, safe to infer, that
for the first six months of this year, property
worth $140,000,000 changed hands.

Although we are in midsummer, the con¬
veyances and mortgages show that large
transactions are taking place. Investors
realize thei*e is but a limited amount of land
on this island, and that in the not distant
future, all parts of it will be in active de¬
mand for residences and business purposes.
The North River tunnel will add enormously
to the warehouse demands on this island.
The two Brooklyn bridges will still further
concentrate business between the two rivers,
while every addition of wealth and popula¬
tion to the United States adds to the com¬
mercial importance of this port. The stock,
mining, and produce exchanges of New
^York   are good  places in  which   to  lose





WILL   THE   DEPRESSION  AFFECT
REAL   ESTATE?

The bullet of Guiteau broke the backbone
of the bull speculation, and since the 2d of
July the market has been a bear one. The
prices of all the active stocks have been
marked down from 15 to 23 points; the
shrinkage of values op this market alone
amounts to more than $200,000,000.

While the assault upon the President was
the excuse for the set back in the markets,
the real cause was that stocks were too
high in view of the prospective business of
the country. The severe winter and stormy
spring seriously interfered with the traffic
of the leading Western coads; it increased
their expenditures and reduced their in¬
comes. Then, the crops were affected. For
the last two years the harvests have been
extraordinarily large ; this year they will be
less than the average, so the I'ailroads, in
addition to the losses of last winter, have be¬
fore them a season in which there will be a
smaller return from the carrying of grain.
Stocks may have been unduly depressed,
and it is very certain that after a while, with
reason or without reason, there wUl be a re¬
bound in prices. Indeed the market on
Thursday and Friday showed great strength.
But will this depression in the stock mar¬
ket affect real estate this coming fall?

Clearly not. The bulling of stocks last
sprmg did not affect the real estate market.
Indeed all the products and manufactures of
the country sold at low rates, while the secu¬
rities on the Stock Exchange were being
marked up. Our wheat, corn, petroleum,
cotton and other exportable articles seldom
brought lower figures than during the crop
season from '80 to '81. But the time will
come when it is inevitable that an enhance¬
ment of prices will take place in general
merchandise, labor and real estate. The
probabilities now are that everything wUl
rule higher than during the past year, ex¬
cept alone stocks. There is a better feeling
in iron and other metals. Grain will be
dearer. Manufactured goods of aU kinds
will be enhanced in value, labor wiU be bet¬
ter paid, and as a matter of course land will
feel the effects of the swelling tide of values.
People should discriminate. We may have
stock panics which may not have any effect
upon the general trade of the country, in¬
deed they may be beneficial; for the money
withdrawn from stock speculation is often
put into legitimate business to the benefit
of all concerned. Bull movements in stocks
are generally the first symptoms of a revival
in trade, but bear attacks upon the market
are wholesome, as they prevent an absorp¬
tion of the money of the country into doubt¬
ful securities.

It is an open question whether there is not
too much building going on.    Our centres of