RECORD AISTD  GUIDE







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"DtAtS) to REX.L Estate.Boildij/o AflcrfiTEeTURE.KouseHoidDEGffltfTKSt:
B JsiiJESs A^JD Themes of GEfto^L IHt^esi.^





PRICE   PER   YEAR   IN   ADVANCE   EIGHT  DOLLARS

Published   eVerg  Saturdag

Communlcatlona sbould oe addreBBel to

C. W.  SWEET.   14-16  Vesey Street,  New York

Telephone, Cortlaadt 3157





"Entered at the Post 0.flce at New York. N. Y.. o9 second-class mailer."





Copyrtght by the Real Estate Raeord and Bnllders' Guide Company.





Voi. LXXVI.





OCTOBER 14, 1905.





No. 1961.





Page

CPtnent ....................''^v

Clay Products  .............xxiv

Contractors and Builders----vit

Pireproofing  .................ii

Grnnite ...................xviii

Heatinc;  ...................xxii

Iron and Steel................xx





INDEIX  TO  DEPARTMENTS.
Advertising Section.

Page

Law .........................ix

Machinery....................v

Metal Work .................sxi

Stone  .....................xviil

Quick Job Directory.......xxvii

Rea! Estate .................xii

Wood Products ............xxvi





THE speculative situation in Wall street continues essen¬
tially unchanged, and may be fairly summed up somewhat
in the following terms: The majority of professional operators
realize that conditions are not favorable at present for any con¬
siderable or sustained advance in prices; but they are convinced
that such an advance will take place, at least in certain stocks,
some time during the coming winter. The consequence is that
in spite of dear money and the admitted opposition of strong
banking interests they prefer rather to buy stoclts than sell
them. Their purchanes do not serve to advance prices very
much except in certain specialties; but they frequently give a
feverish and somewhat uncertain air to the market. It would
be distinctly better that for the next six weeks the market
should be dull and a little weak, because when the money strin¬
gency is over a buying movement might start on a somewhat
lower level which would carry stoclis to a higher one than they
have yet reached. It is improbable, however, either that prices
will sag very much in the near future or that they will advance.
They will not sag, because a good demand for stocks soon de¬
velops on a slightly lower level, aod they will not advance for
the present, because the bankers recognize the danger of en¬
couraging speculation under existing conditions, Mr. Frank
Vanderlip, iu emphasizing this danger, was only repeating
what all conservative financiers have been saying during the
past two mi^nths. The market is likely to remain irregular,
uncertain and somewhat treacherous until loanable capital re¬
turns in large quantities to New Yorh. Then there should be
room for a higher level of prices for certain selected securi¬
ties,  chiefly industrial.





A WELL-DISTRIBUTED activity in certain restidcted
classes of property remains the dominant characteristic
of the real estate market. There is a large amount of ordinary
speculative and investment business consummated every week.
Tenements which are being completed flnd a ready sale, and
there is a constant demand for lots situated in the active dis¬
tricts which are intended for immediate improvement. All this,
however, is an old, although a good, story; and the question is
whether the market will continue indeflnitely to preserve this
routine character, or whether an outburst of speculative interest
in some new district'will soon develop. On the whole, it loolts
as if the routine would remain undisturbed for some months to
come. The operators and speculators indulged in an orgy of
trading in accessible vacant land last year; and they will have
to postpone further exploits of a similar kind until the level of
prices so established has been justified by the results of build¬
ing operations. It may well be, however, that greater activity
will soon develop in the Dyckman tract. In a short while the
Subway will be in operation all the way to Kingsbridge; and
the whole Inwood seetion_will become more accessible than are
large areas of the Bronx, in which a great deal of building is
under way. The level of prices in this section is not yet too
high; and there Is room for further speculative advance in
anticipation of the beginning of building operations. In busi¬
ness property of all kinds very little Interest is being shown;
and this interest is.being confined to the section north of 23d
street, between Fourth and Seyeath,avenues, - The area so de¬





scribed will be the scene of a good deal of activity during the
current season. The wholesale district south of 23d street does
not contain much more room for new buildings; and when the
six or seven Fifth avenue corners now under improvement in
that vicinity are supplied with their new equipment, the build¬
ers of big lofts will have to seek new opportunities north of
23d street. Inasmuch as they are excluded from Fiflh avenue
because-of high prices, and as there are only a few available
sites on Broadway, the question as to which avenue will be
chosen for thi? exploitation is interesting and important. It
looks to the Record and Guide as if both Madison and Sixth
avenues south of 32d street might become thoroughfares avail¬
able for large loft buildings. Operators who erect these struc¬
tures like to keep as near as possible to the retail trade, and also
along the most central avenues, which they can afford; and
Madison and Sixth avenues conform to these requirements.





1904.

1,188

13

1,153

131





THE expectation that the tax on mortgages imposed hy tha
Legislature at its last session would tend to increase the
amount of money offered for investment in mortgages and so
reduce the rate of interest until the tax was paid by the lender,
has up to date been completely lalsified by the event. The
mortgage records show plainly that the tax is being almost
universally paid by the borrower, and that one^half of one per
cent, has been added to the rate which he would otherwise have
been obliged to pay for his loan. The following table shows
the number of mortgages recorded during ths past three weeks
on property situated in Manhattan, the Bronx and Brooklyn
compared to the flgures for the corresponding week last year:

1905.

Mortgages at 6 per cent............ 1,634

At   5'A   per   cent...................     435

At 5 per  cent......................     -^^^

At  414  per  cent....................       31

Such figures as these cannot be misread. Although there
were fewer mortgages recorded during the three weeks of 1905
than there were during the three weeks of 1904, the decrease
took place entirely in mortgages which carried interest at the
rate of flve per cent or less. The number of mortgages car¬
rying iuterest at six per cent increased frora 1,188 to 1,634. The
number of mortgages carrying interest at 5'A per cent, increased
from 13 to 435, which amounts to a demonstration that the
money which a year ago would have been loaned at 5 per cent,
has been loaned at 51/2 per cent, except when the lenders could
obtain six per cent. On the other hand, the 1,153 five per cetit.
mortgages which were recorded last year have in 1905 shrunk
merely to 259, while the 131 four and one-half per cent, mort¬
gages have diminished to 31. As to four per cent loans, there
are practically none of them being recorded at present. Thus
every borrower is either paying an additional one-half of one
per cent, for his money, or else he, is paying more than that;
and the increased annual charge which this is will be not far
from $2,500,000 each year. This money can be paid without any
tremendous strain at the present time, because buildings of all
kin-ds are well rented and building operations profitable; but it
is an outrage that this additional charge should be laid upon
the people who already pay the bulk of the local and state taxes.
The success of the new organization of property owners, the
Allied Real Estate Interests, in securing a large membership, is
a sufficient evidence that the sufferers from this tax are fully
alive to its gross injustice; and the course of the market for
mortgages on real estate during-the next few months will sup¬
ply them with an abundance cf'facts, which can be used w-ith
telling- efEect  during the next session of the Legislature.





THE municipal campaign which will occupy the next few
weeks promises to be much more interesting than seemed
probable a short time ago. The Republicans have obtained in
tneir nominee for Mayor a candidate who is fully capable of
making an energetic and effective canvass; and while Mr. Ivins
has practically no chance of being elected, he w.iU be able and
willing to put up a fight which will do Tammany a great deal of
harm. The administration of Mayor McCIellan is hy no means
so impeccable as many of his supporters appear to imagine;
and his opponent will have an abundance of ammunition with
which to make his speeches explosive and dangerous. More¬
over, the action of Tammany in nominating a separate candi¬
date for District Attorney will afford Mr. Ivins the strong sup¬
port of Mr. Jerome, We believe that the Tammany leaders
were unwise from their own point of view in not endorsing
Mr. Jerome. It was to the interest of that organization to pro¬
voke as little opposition as possible during the campaign this
fall. But it is a good thing for the city of New York that Mr,
Jerome should be forced to take the stump. He may well be
beaten; but it is better that he should be beaten after a good
fight than that the non-partisan reform ideal should be wliolly