EAL
STATE
AND BUILDERS' GUIDE.
Vol. XXIX.
NEW TOBK, SAT0BDAT, JXTNE 2i, 1882.
No. 745
Published Weekly by The
Real Estate Record Association
TERMS:
ONE YEAR, in advance ----- $6.00
Communications should be addressed to
C. W. SWEET, 191 Broadway.
J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager.
The subject of a Real Estate Exchange is
still being actively discussed by all dealers
in realty. The more the matter is looked
into, the more general becomes the impres¬
sion that a.Real Estate Exchange is one of
the necessities of the future. Elsewhere
will be found some very sensible interviews
on the subject. As yet we have heard no
dissent from any real estate dealer whose,
opinion was worth anything. It is acknowl¬
edged that it would add immensely to the
business in realty, and, with a proper Ex¬
change, New York could transact re il estate
business for all parts of the country. The
commissions, perhaps, would be less, but
they would be more than made up by the
multitude of transactions. It will be seen
that several of the dealers who have been
interviewed, suggest means whereby titles
may be searched promptly, so that transac¬
tions in the same piece of property might
frequently: occur. It is, of course, under¬
stood that oheof the embarrassments ia the
way is the time and money-wasting legal
barbarisms whicii impede the transfer of-
property from seller to buyer.' After an
Exchange was fairly in operation, pressure
could be brought to bear upon the Legisla¬
ture to so alter our laws that real property
could be transferred as readily as personal
property. .
ho street cars or elevated roads cheap cabs
would pay in New York as well as in Lon¬
don and Paris, but it is idle to talk about 25
and 50 cents fare, when one can be cari'ied
more cheaply and swifter to one's destina¬
tion by the elevated roads. There is no field
in New York fcir cheap cabs.
THE
CROPS AND
We call aitention to the; letter elsewhere
of a large property holder, respecting the
subject of a street car track on Broadway,
between Fourteenth, street and the Battery.
The writer gives some excellent reasons for
believing that such a road could not now be
built, that the tirne for it is past. Lower
Broadway is no longer a retail street. Its
principal business now and hereafter will be
for wholesale de9,lers. The subject of a
Broadway raUroad rwill be actively pressed
if the Governor signs the railway bill, and
there wUli be- the; usual contentionabout it
in the press. There >are those who believe
that an electric railway may be the solution
of passenger tra,ffio between the Battery and
Union Square.; There will be no smoke or
noise, and the ^Vated structure might be
made aim ost ornam en tal. Something should
be done to relieve Broadway of the great
lumbering stages, but any sort of an elevated
road, even the most unobjectionable, would
be opposed, we think, by the property hold¬
ers as well as the existing elevated railroad
monopolies.
Some unwise newspapers are raising the
question of cheap street cabs, oblivious of
the fact that they have been tried twenty
times and have always failed. If there were
PROSPECT FOR
BUSINESS.
A careful summary of facts about the
crops given by our Chicago correspondent in
last week's Real Estate Record has
been fully confirmed by the newspaper re¬
ports received since that publication. The
South aud the Southwest grow more wheat
and oats this year than ever before, while
the corn in those regions covers a large
acreage and looks well. The crops in Ten¬
nessee, Kentucky, Texas, Kansas and Mis¬
souri are extraordinarily large, and are
beginning to come into the market. The.
wheat and oat fields promise to be immense
throughout tl e country, and, except in
Michigan, the hay crops will be very large.
The corn crop is, however, the one draw¬
back to the situation. It is a month late,
north of the Ohio and Missouri Rivers, and it
jvill require two hot forcing months to give
an average yield per acre. But then the
high price and the necessity for food to feed
cattlvj has so stimulated the corn planting
throughout the country, that the increased
acreage will more than make up for the
backward season. Tl ere are causes at work,
too, which will diminish the demand for
corn from the West. The South and t^e
Southwest will have the largest supply ever
known, and will not need to purchase much
from the region north and west of the Ohio
River. Then there is so large a stock of
whiskey on hand that there will be very
little corn required for distillation this year.
Unless some disaster should occur, the new
crops of all kinds will be nearly equal to
those of 1880, and will give the railroads a
splendid business by the middle of next Sep¬
tember.
For some time past we have been hinting
at the probability of a bull movement dur¬
ing June. On April 29 The Record said :
" If the indications should be favorable by
the early part of June, an early rising mar¬
ket will come with the advent of hot
weather," and we have repeatedly pointed
ou tthe certainty of a bull movement in June,
based upon the promise of the crops. This
we have had, though it must be confessed
the upward tendency of prices was due in a
great measure to the condition of the mar¬
ket. James R. Keene has been the magician
who made the change. When the Meeker
Bros, failed he suddenly covered his shorts
and went long of the market. The spurt of
Lake Shore from 98 to 118 was largely due
to the forced covering of the bears, for Van¬
derbilt helped Keene. Jay Gould was
caught short of Lake Shore, and, according
to ruiuor, made a settlement.
the bea.rs was discovered, and many other
privale settlements were made.
We are disposed to look hopefuUy upon
the situation. The price of grain and provis¬
ions ought to steadily diminish from this time
forth, and if that occurs railway stocks will
be held firmly and may advance. There is no
danger of a panic. AU Western accounts
agree that the farmers are out of debt, and
have money in hand. It is true, they have
neither grain nor cattle in reserve, but then
they are bare of goods. They will not only,
have all the money they need for business
purposes, but will have a surplus for new in¬
vestments in land and in raUway shares.
But there is no hope of seeing the buU times
which closed last July reinaugarated this
year, excitement such as that of 1879, 1880
and the spring of 1881 only come i at rave in¬
tervals in a decade, but if the crops this year
turn out as good as they promise to be, the
fall businet s will be very ^ood, stocks will
be higher, and real estate will be in active'
demand. A cheapening of food products
will rid us of pur labor ti-oubles. ' Altogether '
the situation is hopeful. Money-is easy and'
likely to remain so, while the immigratiiC)fi
continues phenomenally large. The bears in
stock prices will tot be in favor for the next
j^e'ar; unless some unexpected disaster should
pccur to the growing crops.
; WESTERN LAND SPECULATIONS.
; Certain shrewd capitalists in this city have
made a great amount of money in dealing in
Western real estate during the last year and
a half. The large grants of lands to rail¬
ways led, in times past, to the distribution
of blocks of real estate, in the form of wild
lands, to certain retired railway men. For
years this land has been a burden to its
owners. It was apparently unsaleable, and
the taxes were seldom less than 35 cents per
acre per annum. But the immigration,
foreign and domestic, which has been flow¬
ing west over the Mississippi in such great
numbers lately, has been seeking these lands.
Great quantities have been taken up, but tbe
owners in New York have not profited, as a
general thing, by the rise in values. A class
of brokers has been developed who know
how to dispose of the land to the immigrants,
and who are in league with rich men in this
and other cities, who purchase the iand in
great blocks for cash and sell to the immi¬
grant on time. We know of one very rich
man who has added a quarter of a mUlion
to his possessions within the last year, and
this without leaving the city. He buys ten
and twelve thousand acres at a time, paying
$4 and $5 an acre, reselling to the purchaser
at 100 to 125 per cent, advance, and taking
his pay in 25 per cent, down and a mortgage.
If the farmer pays up, weU and good; if he
does not; the seller gets back, the farm, great¬
ly enhanced in value. The number of new
and good farms taken up within the past
two years has been very large in aU the
Western country, and in the more settled
An unsus- j neighborhoods the price of realty has
pected amount of financial weakness among i doubled. The time cannot be distant when