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March .S, 1904
RECORD AND GUIDE
An
^ ESTAEIUSHID^lJlJkBpHeiii^iaea. •
Bi/soiESS ai^Thches Of CEtfan^. iKTEfi^p
PAIGE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE. SIX DOLLARS
PubUihcd eVerp Saturday
Communications ahould be addreoBed to
C. W. SWEET. 14-16 Vesey Street. New Y«rK
a. T. LIHDSET, BuBlneas Manager Telephone, Ctortl»Bilt 81BT
"XtUered at the Post Offlce al Neio York. If. Y., as second-class maOtr."
Vol. LXXIII, MARCH 5. 1904, No. 1877
The Index to Volume LXXl of Ihe Record and Guide, cover¬
ing iheperiod bctircen July I and Drcembcr 31, 1903. ts now ready
for. delivery. I'rive,'$1. Thin Index in its enlaryed form is now
recognized as indispensable lo every one engaged or interested in
real estate and building operations. It covers all transactions—
deeds, mortgages, leases, auction sales, building plans filed, etc.
Orders for the Index should be sent atonce to the ofiice of pubUca
tion, 14 and 16 Vesey St _^____
DURING the spring and summer of 1902 everybody whose
judgment was not perverted by "prosperity" realized that
the prices of securities w.ere in general too high, but even the
man who was most assured of this fact would naturally hesi¬
tate, such was the prevailing speculative temper, to sell the
market short. Conversely at the present time it is a demon¬
strable proposition that prices are lower than the intrinsic
values of good securities, whether railroad or industrials; but
in the same way no one cares to buy stocks, except on a big
margin and for a long pull. No one can tell precisely when the
market will get out of its present rut; it may have to beat time
to the existing measure until next November; and all indications
point to the fact that the general investing community is resting,
after the fever of 1901, 1902 and part of 1903, and that the recu¬
peration will take as many months as the debauch. The great
saving fact of the situation is the undeniable prosperity of the
farmers, and the only circumstances which will prevent this
prosperity from lasting through 1904 would be an absolute fail¬
ure of the crops. With grain and cotton selling at their present
prices, even an ordinary yield of agricultural products would
mean prosperity for the people who produce them. But there
is no prosperity just uow for the hard-working men, who pro¬
duce prices on the Stock Exchange. The market has lost its
interest evea for the most professional of the professional specu¬
lators; and the only people who can find pleasure or profit in the
existing situation are the money-lenders. Great is the power
of cash.
LAST spring, before the strike in the huiiding trades and the
prolonged cessation of work, the Record and Guide predicted
that there would be a house famine in Manhattan during the com¬
ing fall and spring. There can be little doubt that such a famine
has arrived. Of course we do not mean that the increasing and
fluid population will not actually be able to find residence ac¬
commodation somewhere; but if they remain in Manhattan they
will have to pay even higher prices for their habitations than
they are paying now. The course of rents is bound to be up¬
wards because the supply continues low, while the demand is
active and urgent. The intention of the Rhinelander estate to
raise the rents of its houses is not, indeed, any evidence of a
further increase in this respect, for in point of fact, no wide¬
spread increase has as yet taken place in the part of the city in
which the Rhinelander estate is situated; nevertheless the fact
that tlli estate notices a strong enough demand for its houses
to warrant the insistence on higher rentals indicates that the
levelling up is spreading throughout the whole of the city, and
is affecting property off the main line of improvement, Harlem,
of course, has heen the area in which the most complete change
cf condition has taken place, and tenement houses the kind of
property most affected; but there are indications that property
on the Weet Side and apartment houses of a more expensive
character aro also feeling more strongly the influence making
for higher hentals. During the past week the West Side has
figured more prominently in the news than has heen cus¬
tomary of late. Yet iu spite of these high rentals and the
enormously improved investment standing of all sorts of build¬
ings, there are very few new buildings being erected and very
few old ones being really sold. There is an extremely lively
speculation in contracts taking place; but there ia very little
real buying and building underway. Of course it is merely a
question of time when the barriers will be broken down and
the flood of new. buildings erected. It may be expected that
the resistant forces will be strong enough this spring to keep
the market very much in its present position; hut if so, the
mine is being laid which will explode with one of the biggest
building speculations for residential purposes that New York
has ever seen.
THE annual dinner of the Real Estate Board of Brokers is the
one occasion on which the gentlemen interested in real
estate in this city get together and talk over their conditions
and prospects. During the past two years, under the able
presiding management of Mr. Ward, the dinners have been
extremely successful, and the one held last Saturday night was
also remarkable, because of the large number of prominent city
officers who were present and gave an authoritative expression
of their views. Corporation Counsel Delany was there, and
Police Commissioner McAdoo, who always speaks happily and
to the point; but the vigorous utterances of Comptroller Grout
on the subject of mortgage taxation was particularly well
timed and awakened the sympathetic interest of his audience.
In spite of his radical disbelief in the princii)le of mortgage
taxation, the Comptroller evidently agrees with Mr. Purdy, and
indeed wilh the whole real estate interest, that the mortgage
recording tax supplies the best temporary solution of the prob¬
lem. There can be no doubt that it would immensely improve
the position of borrowers on real estate in the New York
loan market, and just at the present time their position is very
much in need of improvement. As yet, however, no word has
come down from Albany whether the bill wjll or will not he
passed. The program of oflicial legislation is exceedingly slow in
developing this year. Some plan of increased taxation the
Governor will most assuredly press; but his procrastination in
announcing what that plan will be is a sufficient evidence of
division in the party councils about these important matters!
The mortgage recording tax depends upon the decision which
the party leaders ultimately reach, because if passetl at all, it
will be passed not as a small measure of justice to real estate,
but as a State revenue bill. It is not the purpose, however,
with which it is passed that is the essential thing, but the fact
of its passage, which will, as Mr. Purdy pointed out, save bor¬
rowers in this State some $10,000,000 per annum. It is no
wonder, consequently, that the brokers were interested in the mat¬
ter, and passed a unanimous resolution in favor of the bill. The
other prominent cily official present on this occasion, Tenement
House Commissioner Crain, had a good deal to say about the
desirability of modifying the rigidity of the existing law, but
whatever may he the Commissioner's opinion as to the desir¬
ability of making the application of the law more flexible, it is
encouraging to notice that he thoroughly approves the purpose
of the law and its main provisions, and proposes to stand hy it.
THE RECORD AND GUIDE is glad to note that the tide
seems to he setting in the direction of an underground
instead of an elevated connection between the new bridges and
the old one. It looked at one time as if a new connecting ele¬
vated railroad would most assuredly he built, either on Centre
Street or Baxter Street, but the project will apparently he
blocked, as it should he. in the Rapid Transit Commission.
According to its advocates, the elevated connection has the ad¬
vantage of economy and celerity of construction. As to the
economy of an elevated road, we doubt very much the reality
of the advantage, provided the unavoidable damages to adjacent
property are included in the estimate. There is no doubt that the
overhead connection can be more quickly constructed, but this
is its only advantage. In other respects, a tunnel is
very much to be preferred. Overhead railroads belong to the
past period of rapid transit in this city. The streets should
not be disfigured with any more of thera; and so important a
connection as that between the bridges should be made to
articulate with the great and growing subway system of the
metropolis, not with the partly superseded elevated system.
For our own part, we should like to see the Manhattan Bridge
abandoned and the money spent in building a couple of tunnels
under the East River, properly connected with each other and
with the existing subway. The Record and Guide realizes, how¬
ever, that the abandonment of this bridge would be politically
inexpedient and would provoke resentment in Brooklyn. The
Manhattan Bridge will have to be built; but if built, it and the
new Wiiliamsburgh Bridge should not he made an excuse for
encumbering the streets with an elevated structure which would
have to be both wide and heavy. Mayor McClellan is showing
admirable zeal in pushing for the early running of cars over the
new bridge, and there can be no doubt that bis zeal is war-