Real  Estate   Record

AND BUILDERS' GUIDE,





Vol. XXYIII.





NEW YORK, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1881.





No, 720





Published Weekly by The

Real Estate Record Association

TERMS:
ONE YEAR, in advaace.....$6.00

Communications should be addressed to

Ce W. SWEET, 13T Broadway.

J. T. LINDSEY'Business Manager.

RETROSPECT.
In looking back over the course of prices
forthe past year, there has been nothing
discouraging to the legitimate dealers in real
estate. There has been no extraordinary
advance, but property in every part of the
city has been tirmly held, and scarcely any
losses can be recorded against those who
bought wisely. It was supposed that the
great rise in the stock niarket during the
fall and winter of 1880 and 1881, would lead
to an excited real estate market during the
spring of the latter ■} ear ; but such did not
prove to be the case. At no time during the
year was there any evidence of a general
speculative movement. Property has been
very firmly held in the business and f ai^hion-
able quarters of the city. If there has been
any disappointment, it has been in the lack
of interest in West Side property, especially
on the Riverside Drive and the streets ad¬
jacent.

The past year has been distinguished by a
very great building movement. The Nine¬
teenth and Twelfth Wards have increased,
of course, more largely than any others.
The new building has followed the line of the
backbone of the island, that is, up Lexing¬
ton, Madison and Fourth avenues. A nota¬
ble building movement is that which has
sprung ^up on the flat grounds above One
Hundred and Twenty-fifth street. It is evi¬
dent that the building'activity for the com¬
ing year will be largely in that|direction,
and that the time cannot be far distant
when all the low lying ground north of the
Central Park up to the Harlem River, will
be covered -v^ith houses.

One of the special features of the building
of the past year has been the construction of
immense buildings for offices on the lower
part of the island and of great apartments
and flats on the central zone of the city.
The use of the elevator is changing the arch¬
itecture of New York. While less space is
being taken up, buildings of greater height
are everywhere in course of erection. This
change in our method of house construction
bids fair to make New York in the course of
time the most densely populated city in the
world, that is to say, it will have the great¬
est number of inhabitants to the square
mile. There seems to be no end to the de¬
mand for suites of rooms. Apartment
houses cannot be erected in sufficient num¬
bers to supply the demand.

It cannot be expected that as many houses
wiU be erected next year as this, certainly
not as many dwelling houses. As a matter
of fact there were rather more erected than





overbuilt, for every new edifice was in eager
demand by would-be tenants. The popula¬
tion of the city is growing rapidly, and the
coming spring will undoubtedly see a hand¬
some advance in rentals. But the surplus
houses left over unsold will serve to check
new enterprises in the way of edifices cost¬
ing from $25,000 to $40,000.

The insurance companies, savings banks
and private capitalists are disposed to be
liberal with speculative builders. There is
no difficulty in getting money, and a good
deal of it, on houses. Indeed, it is suspected
that the mortgages given by builders repre¬
sent the cost of the lot and all the expense
of building the house, and the great money
lenders are justified in this liberality, for
nothing can be surer than mortgages upon
real estate in New York city.

One of the features of this year's real
estate market was the great sale of Brooklyn
lots near Prospect Park. The prices were so
good and the biddings so spirited, that it
shows that the completion of the bridge and
rapid transit facilities will soon develop an
active market on the other side of the East
River. The great popularity of Coney
Island, Rockaway and Long Beach, will
necessarily direct attention to Brooklyn
and Long Island property.

One of the surprises of the year has been
the great development of the retail traffic in
Fourteenth and Twenty-third streets.  Four¬
teenth street, between Broadway and Sixth
avenue, began to drift into the retail trade
soon after the establishment of Macy's, but
it is only during the last two years that the
full value of that location for a good retail
traffic has been realized.     The change in
Twenty-third street has been no less unex¬
pected.   When Stern Brothers opened their
fine store two years ago, it seemed like a
dangerous experiment, but the subsequent
history of the street  justifies their enter¬
prise.     It   is   undoubtedly the destiny of
Booth's Theatre to be converted in a great
store,  and   when   that   is   accomplished,
Twenty-third street will fairly rival Four¬
teenth street.    Capitalists who bought Fifth
avenue property below Thirty-fourth street,
with  a view  to  its   conversion into  fine
stores, have been disappointed in a measxire,
for the change has not come there, but has
lagged behind and developed itself in Twenty-
third street.   It is not impossible that all of
Twenty-third street, west of Broadway, may
in time be turned into retail stores, and be
to the West Side what Grand street is to the
East Side.   Every street which leads to a
ferry is   destined  to   grow in  importance
with  the  development   of   the  passenger
traffic of the various railway and steamship
lines.   The growth of the traffic on ferries
has its effect upon retail stores, and is a
matter that should be carefully studied by
real estate investors.

Another significant development is the
increase value of all avenue property upon
which the elevated roads run. Sixth and
Third avenues have both been greatly bene





about by the elevated road system. While
the elevated tracks and the rattle of the
cars would naturally injury a residence
street, the experience we bave had settles
the question that the elevated roads add to
the value of property devoted to business
and the retail trade.

Notwithstanding the popularity of the
elevated road system, our street car system
holds its own. The price of horse car stocks
has risen from the increase of business.
The elevated road figures will soon show
how great has been the increase of travel
within the past year. Taken altogether, the
retrospect for the past year must be a iratis-
f actory one to all real estate dealers who
have exercised sound judgment.





WALL STREET,
The year closes upon what looks like a
reasonably strong stock market, but it is dif¬
ficult to say whether this is due to manipu¬
lation, the covering of shorts or legitimate
buying. One of the rumors afloat is that D|j
O. Mills, James R. Keene and Henry ViUard
have formed a syndicate to put the market
up several points. Keene is said to have
boasted that he followed Gould down when
the latter was a bull, and that he proposed
to follow him up, now that the latter is a
bear.

One of the rumors of the week is that W.
H. Vanderbilt intends to retire from the
management of the various railroads with
which his name has been identified in the
past. It is further stated that he will be
succeeded by Cornelius Vanderbilt, his son.
Should this prove true it will at once restore
confidence in the Vanderbilt roads. Corne¬
lius is known to be the ablest as well as the
most prudent of all the living Vanderbilt
family. The report is, however, doubtful.
Few men like to give up great power once
wielded. Should Wm. H. Vanderbilt "throw
up the sponge" he would leave the financial
world under a cloud. The investing public
agree in denouncing his recent career unspar¬
ingly. They say he has deliberately wrecked
valuable railway properties and has caused
a loss to innocent investors of millions of
dollars. On the other hand, the merchants
of New York City can have no cause of com¬
plaint with the recent management of Cen¬
tral and its allied roads. Bad as the railway
war may have been for shareholders, it has
been a good thing for the merchants and the
business of the metropolis.

The past year has been one of violent fluc¬
tuations in Wall street, probably the most
extreme known in its history. The promise
of the coming year is that there will be less
doing in stocks than during the former three
years, and that the fluctuations will not be
so great. As a matter of fact, active specu¬
lation is now in general merchandise, manu¬
factured goods, coal and the metals. The
great growth of business is at the manufac¬
turing centres, while the general trade of the
coim.try was never so active. Unless all the
signs fail the next great movement will be





could be sold at a profit.   The city was not i flted by the concentration of travel brought ^in. realty.   It may not come next year, but