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June ly, 1905.
RECORD KND GUIDE
1321
_ ^ ESTABUSHED-i.
Deified 10 REA.L Estate , BuiLoiffc i&^RpKiTEeTai^E',Hcsusnlou) DECO^jTwt,
BifsirlESS Alto Themes of GEjtoi^t iKTERf^l-j
PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS
Published every Saturdaa
Communications sboulil ne addresBed to
C. W. SWEET. 14-ie Vesey Street, New York
Toiephone, Cortlandt 3157
"Entered at the Post O.fflc
e at ^^ew York
if. r.
as
second-class matler."
Copyright by th
Keal Estate Reeord a
id Builders
Guide Company.
Vol. LXXV.
JUNE 17
1905.
No. 1944,
INDEX TO DEPARTMENTS.
(Advertising Section.)
Page,
Cement ...............xxvH Law .........
Clay Products .......... xxlv Machinery .....
Contractors and Builders. vil Metal Work
Fireproofing ........... ii Heal Estate ..'.
Granite ............... j:vi Stone
Iron and Sleel........... xx Wood Products'
Subscribers desiring to have the "Record and Guide" sent 'to
their summer address will confer a great favor by always giving
their old address as well as the nev.' address in sending in their
instructions to the office of publication.
TT was not to bfi expectetl that the renewal of activity and the
â– â– â– advancing prices which loolc place on Saturady ol last week
indicated any comparatively permanent change in the specu¬
lative condition oi the Stoclv Marlvet, The spurt was due to
temporary causes and was brought about by professional buy¬
ing. The dullness which preceded and followed the spurt
showed much more plainly the kind of stock market which will
prevail for the next month or two. There is no reason to sup¬
pose that anything will occur in the near future to warrant
either an active selling or an active buying movement. Even
the signing of a peace treaty between Japan and Russia would
not have any eftect beyond a day or two, and the necessity
that Russia would be under to raise an indemnity would tend to
weaken still further the weakest aspect of the existing prospects
—the danger that is, of a money stringency in the fall. Dull¬
ness wil! continue until good crops are assured. In the mean
time the course of prices is likely to be up rather than down;
but the movement will be small. The position of the Stock
Market has been improving steadily of late, but it has been
improving very slowly; and it will not do to anticipate a much
faster improvement in the future.
T^ HE real estate market has been proceeding along custom-
^ ary lines at a reasonable pace. The transactions both re¬
ported aud recorded are becoming smaller than, they were, but
they continue to be more numerous than they were during the
corresponding period of last year. During the next two weeks
interest will be concentrated in the mortgage market. Wherever
possible mortgages will, of course be recorded before July 1st,
the date when the new tax becomes effective, and a great deal
of business which ordinarily would be spread over several
months will have,to be transacted before July 1st. The real
estate money market has indeed been iu an extraordinary con¬
dition throughout the whole of the current year. Money has
been easy, and plenty of it available on good security at four
and four and one-half per cent. Nevertheless the character of
the real estate business was such that unusually large sums
of money had to be borrowed at unusually high rates of in¬
terest. Thus, the number of mortgages recorded on Manhattan
real estate had increased up to the end. of the first week in
June, from 7,2S8 in 1S04 to 10,802 in 1905, the percentage of
increase being just about 50. But the amoivnt of money loaned
during the same period increased from $136,000,000 in 1904 to
$S5ij,000,000 in 1905, the percentage of increase in this case be¬
iiig a little less than 100. Thus the average sum of money
carried by each mortgage was $18,600 in 1904 and about $24,000
in 1905, which is an enormous alteration to take place in one
year. Quite as remarkable, however, is the change which has
taken place in the amouut of money loaned at six per cent and
the proportion it bears to the total amount loaned on Man¬
hattan property. Up to the end of the first week In June, 1904,
there were 3,756 six per cent mortgages recorded, carrying with
them about $40,000,000 in money, so that about half of all the
mortgages boro interest at the rate of six per cent, and these
mortgages covered two-sevenths of all the money loaned. But
during tbe corresponoing period in 1905 there have been 6,567
mortgages recorded bearing interest at six per cent, and they
loaned the total sum of $122,146,000. Thus conseciuently, about
sixty per cent of the 1205 mortgages have named six per cent
as tbe rate of interest, and these papers have carried with them
almost half of the total amount of mouey loaned. These
figures indicate both how much the speculative building of
tenements has increased over last year, and how much of the
speculation in vacant land has been financed at high rates of
interest.
â– ^J RIVATE residences continue to be in fair demand, par-
•^ ticularly in tbe residential districts to the south and east
of Central Park. This demand is nothing extraordinary, but
it is sufficient to indicate that Manhattan will take a long time
to become a city of tenements and flats alone. Undoubtedly
the actual supply of private dwellings in iManhattan decreases
ffom year to year, for more of them are destroyed to make way
for business buildings and flats than there are new ones erected,
and at the present time the conversion of the old brownstone
houses west of 5th Avenue and north of 34th St. into store
and olEce buildings is so very active that one might expect an
even larger demand for new dwellings on the part of the peo¬
ple, who have made money by selling out the houses in which
they have been living. At any rate the demand has been suffi¬
cient to warrant the building of almost twice as many new
residences as there were built last year. During the first six
months of 1904 plans were flled for only SO private dwellings
to be erected at au estimated cost of $946,000, while during the
whole twelve months of that year plans were flled for only GO
dwellings, which were estimated to cost $2,134,500, So far dur¬
ing 1905 plans have been flled for 57 dwellings, which are? es¬
timated to cost $2,946,000, Just as during 1904 the building
of private dwellings in iManhattan touched its low water-mark,
so during 19ii5 it is probable that as many private residences
will be built as during auy year since 1899—when plans were
flled for over 300. The locations in which the new residences
are being built are distributed about the same as they have
been of iate years. Up to date "Washington Heights is even
more poorly represented than it was during the flrst six months
of 1904, the flgures for last year being 18 dwellings to cost
$302,000, while the figures for this year ai'e so far only 15 dwell¬
ings to cost $181,000. As compared to this, we may remark that
plans have been flled for about 130 tenements to be built on
Washington Heights at a cost of almost $7,500,000. It is in the
district south of 59th St. that most money is being spent on
new dwellings. In that section 12 new ones are to be erected,
almost all by people who are building to occupy themselves,
at a cost of $1,347,000, On the West Side on the other hand, the
number of dwellings for which plans have been filed is 24, being
twice as great, while the cost is only $743,000. a little over half
aa much. The average cost of each new West Side dwelling
is $30,000, while the average cost of each new dwelling erected
to the east or south of the Park is over $100,000.
WHY is it that the City cannot manage a building op¬
eration with anything approaching the directness and
efficiency of a private corporation? Talce the case of the Hall
of Records. If that structure had been intended as the head¬
quarters of say, one of our big life insurance companies, it
would not only have been flnished long ago, but its eost would
have been considerably less, which is saying a good deal when one
considers how recldessly these institutions for the protection
of the fatherless siiuander their cash. The recently proposed
revision of the plans of the Hall of Records, which will cost
taxpayers another half million, will not only delay the comple¬
tion of the building itself, but tends in practise to remove every
guarantee that an appropriation for a City building means any¬
thing. What is the use of discussing the question of the cost
of a public structure and after arriving laboriously at a certain
set of flgures, prove by subsequent acts that the whole business
was a meaningless farce? The opponents of the municipal man¬
agement of gas and other services are provided with a very
strong argument by the dilatory and extravagant way in which
the City manages the erection of its public buildings.
THE reports recently published of the Interborough Com¬
pany and the New York City Railway Company indi¬
cate very plainly what the effect of the operation of the Sub¬
way has been on the distribution of trafiic in Manhattan and
the Bronx. The Subway has been carrying about 325,000 pas¬
sengers per day. Of this total about 160,000 were passengers
which formerly used tlie elevated, and about 50,000 were pas¬
sengers which form_erly used the surface cars. The remaining
115,000 fares represent in part the increased travel of the