Real  Estate   Record





AND BUILDERS' GUIDE.





Vol. XXIX.





NEW TORK, SATURDAY, JUNE 3, 1882.





No. 742





Published Weekly by The

Real Estate Record Association

TERMS:

ONE TEAS, in advance.....$6.00

Communications should be addressed to

C. W. SWEET. 191 Broadway.

J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager.

THE PROPOSED REAL ESTATE EX¬
CHANGE.
The project for a Real Estate Exchange,
first referred to in these columns, is naturally
creating a good deal of discussion in real
estate circles. As a matter of course the
suggestion at first excited more or less criti¬
cism. Any interference with the usual
order of business is regarded with disfavor
by those whose interests are directly affected,
but the more the matter is considered, deal¬
ers in realty will see that it is they who will
profit as well as the public. All our other
great material interests find exchanges not
only useful but indispensable. Ten shares
of stocks are sold to-day where one would
be transferred were the business carried on
in private offices and without the authority
of a great organization to give contracts for
the exchange of stocks, a guarantee they
could not have in any other way. People
\7ho have property to sell or those who wish
to invest would have no hesitation in deal¬
ing through an exchange ; though now they
are often deterred from doubts about the
methods pursued by private firms. The
value of an exchange is that it brings the
business to a focus and so increases the num¬
ber of transactions, for all the buyers and all
the sellers are brought together. Hence
the business not only of the larger but of
the smaller brokers would be very greatly
increased.

There is still another consideration. A
Real Estate Exchange would keep a vigilant
watch upon both our city and State govern¬
ments in all matters affecting realty. If the
organization itself did not take action, the
heavy dealers, being brought together daily,
could easily combine not only to prevent the
levy of wasteful taxes and assessments, but
could correct many of the abuses which the
existing laws sanction. A Real Estate Ex¬
change would naturally try to simplify and
cheapen the transfers of real estate. It
could correct abuses at the register's office
and in a hundred ways relieve real estate of
the burdens which now press upon it.
Heretofore corrupt corporation rings have
fattened upon the property of real estate
owners. They have been assessed and
plundered in every possible way, all because
of a lack of a business organization to repre¬
sent them. Of course an exchange is simply
a place where dealers will meet to buy and
sell, but inevitably other results would fol¬
low from the organization of the brokers
and dealers. One of the first things to be
attended to would be the getting rid of the
onerous exactions of the legal profession.
The real ^tate interest iuthis city pays mil¬





lions of dollars to lawyers for every cent
spent upon them by members of the regular
Stock Exchange. The brokers in personal
securities will have nothing to do with
courts or lawyers. This of course would
be impracticable in the real estate business,
but a great deal could be done in the way of
cutting down unnecessary expenses in the
transfer of titles, and in other ways.

It, has been suggested that a good site
would be A. T. Stewart's Chambers street
and Broadway building.     It can be leased
now ou very favorable terms, and would be
a splendid investment for an interest which
would  at once fill up all the offices into
which the building could be sub-divided.
Still, as the real estate business now centres
about Pine street, it would be easy to pro¬
cure accomnaodations in that neighborhood.
When The Real Estate Record first sug¬
gested   a   Metal   Exchange,   the   leading
brokers who had a monopoly of the business
of buying and selling were very much op¬
posed to it.   The great iron, capper, tin and
lead interests were then so manipulated as
to   discourage   dealing-,   and   to   put  the
operator at the mercy of a  few  leading
houses.   We, of course, do not claim that
the two exchanges subsequently organized
were called into existence by anything we
said, but the business tendency of the day
is in the direction of the organization of
such exchanges as will give  :the greatest
liberty of choice and price to dealers on
both sides of the market.    The telegraph
and the concentration of business in large
cities   necessitates    organized . exchanges.
The slow, costly and  ineffective  way  of
doing business, prevalent; twenty years ago,
must give place to the njore efficient modern
methods rendered necessary by the telegraph
and telephone.     It is safe to predict that
two years after an efficient exchange has
been instituted, tiie real estate business of
this city will increase fourfold.   Moneyed
men are now often puzzled as to the course
of prices on the Stock Exchange, and they
employ   their  spare   time^ and  money in
dabbling in cotton or grain.   A Real Estate
Exchange would be a very tempting field
for such operators.   They are a class who
believe in quick turns, and hence brokers
and commission houses would profit largely
by them.   We hope before the summer is
over that some measures will be taken to
organize a Real Estate Exchange.
--------------«-•-»--------------

The bUl passed by the Legislature taxing
the gross receipts of the. elevated roads in¬
stead of assessing them as real estate, is en¬
tirely just in principle. Our readers know
that no publication has become more out¬
spoken than The Record in condemnation
of the elevated stock manipulations of Jay
Gould, Cyrus W. Field and their prfdecessors
and associates. But we have also always
held that the taxation of the elevated roads
was excessive and indefensible in law and
equity, and that its owners were quite right
in protesting against the injustice. The pub¬
lic press have charged corruption in the pas_





sage of this act, and undoubtedly the general
public are in favor of any burden that can be
laid upon the shoulders of Gould and Field-
But the law should not sanction even the just
resentments of the community; it should deal
with the merits of the case quite irrespective
of the fact that the owners of the elevated
roads are under the ban of public opinion.
That the Mayor and Controller should make
a fight for all the taxes they can raise, was
to have been expected; but the simple fact is
that the tax levied upon the elevated roads
was monstrously unjust, and the State can.
not afford to do wrong even to punish such
objectionable people as the owners of the
elevated roads.





BUILDING IN 1881 AND 1883.

The following analysis of the plans filed
at the Building Department wiU prove in¬
teresting to all who own or deal in New
York realty. It wUl beseen that for Janu¬
ary, February, March, Aptil and May of this
year there were 586 plans, against 613 for
the sapie Jfive months last year. -. The num^
ber of buildings is less by nearly 800, and
the estimated cost is less by over $8,000,000.
It will be noticed, however, that in the
region below Fourteenth street, the number
of buildings have increased, which remark
is also true of the Twenty-third and Twenty-
fourth Wards.

1881.             1883.

No. plans .....................              612               586

Total No. huildings.......___           1,345            1,079

Estimated cost....       ........821,292,610   S17,T85.S70

No. south of 14th st............              143               164

Cost...............,...............   $5,327,770     $3,477,260

No. het 14th and 59th sts. ■.....             '.311               201

Cost......................   $5,862,3:^5     $4,810,980

No. het 59th and 125th sts, west

of Sthav....................'             62                40

Cost............................      $652,700     $1,015,300

No. bet 59th and 12oth sts, east

of5thav.....................•            550               414

Cost.......;.........  ..........   $7,533,930     $6,114,175

Ko. het 110th and 125th sts, Sth         # .'

and Sth avs..................               ll                  6

Cost............................        $97,500         $79,250

No. 23d and 24th Wards........               85               ilT

Cost.........................      $320,725       $432,065

BROOKLYN.

1881.             1882.
No. buildings projected during

flve months ending May 31..              767               8>6

Estimated cost................   $2,319,862     $3,870,145

TRANSACTIONS FALLING OFF.
The comparisons of the conveyances dur¬
ing May with those of the preceding
months of this year show a large faUing off.
The transactions are fewer as compared
with March and April, and the amounts in¬
volved smaller. Of course the month of
June will show a stiH larger decrease.

23d &

1881.     Cons.        Am't.      Nom. 24th W. Am't.   nom

Sept.      389      $4,937,744      103        59     $218,061      12

Oct.       619        8,634,824      169        75      aSl.SbO      23

Nov.       876       13,464,964      225      133      353,565      19

Dec.       719       14,459,915      226        72       190.010      10
1882

Jan".      785       13,970,643      190      102       260,735      22

Feb.       901       11,776,640      273        91       317,386      31

Mar.    1,191       20,422,338      294      119      376,293      88

Apr.    1,471       19,690.318      340      133      527.989      22

May     1,139       18,425,884      283        98       189.606      28





It is quite time the Hall of Records was
condemned by the Grand Jury. It shows a
strange apathy on the part of our city offi¬
cials as well as property holders that a new
building was not erected long ago to pre¬
serve the records of the titles to all the real
property in New York city.   The proposal