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February i6, 1907
RECORD AND GUIDE
355
ESTABLISHED ^ W^ARCH 21ii^ 186 8.
Dev&teD JO Rea,L Estate.BulLOI^'o A;R.a(!TEeTi]RE,KousEHou)Di:coHAT!c:I.
Bi/sit^Ess ai/dThemes of Ge^rrI It^TEiRpsi.
PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS
published every Saturday
Coromnnicatlons should lie addresanil to
C. W. SWEET
Downtown Office; 1-4-16 Vesey Street, New York
Tolephoue, Cortlandt 31.'J7
Uptown Office: 11-13 East 24th Street. New Yurk
Teleplione, 4-130 Madison Square
'â– Entered at the J'o.sf Office al JVctc York, If. Y,, as second-class mailer."
Vol. LXXIX.
FEBRUARY 16, 1907.
No. 2031.
INDEX TO DEPARTMENTS.
Advertlsins Section.
Page Page
Cement ......................xix Lumber ....................xxiv
Consulting Engineers...........x Machinery ...................vi
Clay Products ...............xviii Metal Work ................xvli
Contractors aud Builders ......iv Quick Job Directory .........xxv
Electrical Interests ..........viii Real Estate ...................xi
Fireprooflng ...................ii Roofers & Roofing Materials.xxii
Granite ....................xx Stone ......................xx
Iron and Steel.................xvi Wood Products .............xxiv
TOCKS this week have moved a little and that has heen
in the way oC advance rather than retrogression.
Prices are low and, measnred by actnal values, never lower.
As has heen previously remarked in this paper, the persist¬
ent agitation against railroads is having its effect by pre¬
venting the construction of new ones. Not a dollar of
money is likely to be found in the world to go into a new
railroad enterprise while this present unreasoning attack on
that form of investment continues. The result is obvious.
Exisling railroad systems in their respective territories will
become residuary legatees oi the country's growth, and must
therefore consequently increase in value. Without wishing
it and in spite of themselves, President Roosevelt and his
imitatars are really bequeathing to the present lines of rail¬
roads a virtual monopoly by frightening capital. The Al¬
drich bill reported to the Senate this week will probably be
passed because of the adroit manner in which it is intro¬
duced as an amendment to a House bill already passed. Its
passage ought to be worth ten points to the stock market
because it contains financial remedies which go to the very
heart of the weakness of our currency system. Real estate
and building interests have a vital concern in tlie sticcess
of the bill, and already it appears that many persons are
writing to their Congressmen and Senators to stiffen some
invertebrate backbones. The spectacular feature of the mar¬
ket was the crossing of 200 by Anaconda, even going beyond
its former highest record of Feb. 13, 1906. There are those
who say that nothing can prevent the stock's mounting to
a much loftier figure. There is also some evidence, accord¬
ing to brokers' reports, that Washington is beginning to
buy stocks. When orders c6me froiii the national capital
they are presumably based on knowledge of Congressmen
and Senators as'to the course of legislation and consequently
gladden the hearts of Wall Street men. What is known as
the public has certainly made no sign as yet of coming into
the market and no one is rash enough to predict when that
â– 'consummation devoutedly to be wished" will eventuate.
Neither call nor time money has been a considerable factor
in the market this week, whereat borrowers rejoice and say,
"for this relief much thanks."
THE diminution in the amount of activity in real estate,
which the records of the current year show as com¬
pared to the records of the corresponding period last year,
is very extraordinary. It is not confined to any one of the
three larger boroughs, and it evidently due to general rather
than to special causes. Thus, in Manhattan the number of
transfers of real property recorded during the first flve weeks
of the year amounted to only 1,602, against 3,616 for the
corresponding period last year. This decrease amounts to
about 35 per cent, and is more remarkable in its volume
than the increases which the records exhibited last year and
in 1905. In the Bronx the decrease in the number of con¬
veyances has been equal to 2 5 per cent., and in Brook¬
lyn a diminution in about the same ratio must be registered.
When we turn to the building filings the proportion falling
off of recorded activity is even larger. During the same
period plans have been flled for only 7 5 new buildings to be
erected in Manhattan at an estimated cost of ?4,381,000,
whereas the totals for the corresponding period in 1906 were
229 new buildings and the estimated cost over $19,000,000.
Thus the amount of money to be invested in projected Man-^
hattan buildings is scarcely one-fifth of what it was during
the early part of 1906. In the Bronx this proportionate de¬
crease is much smaller, while in Brooklyn there has been
in this item an actual and a substantial decrease. The two
causes which have cocjperated to bring about this falling off
iu activity are, of course, the money market and the dimin¬
ished speculation iu tenement houses and in fiats. It is
true that ?5-l,000,000 has been loaned on Manhattan real
estate during the first five weeks of this year, against only
$32,000,000 during the corresponding period in 1906; but
this increase is only apparent. Last year whenever real,
property was transferred, existing mortgages were, if possi¬
ble, left untouched, so as to escape the mortgage tax, where¬
as, now existing mortgages are, if possible, recorded again
so as to obtain the benefit of the mortgage recording tax.
On the other hand the great part which the diminished spec¬
ulation in tenements has played towards the reduction in
the number of transfers is shown by the figures published in
the Record and Guide, exhibiting the comparative value of
the property transferred in the two years. During the first
five weeks of 1907, 109 conveyances were recorded for ex¬
pressed considerations and their aggregate price was $7,-
342,000. During the same period in 1906 the 1^8 parcels
transferred under similar conditions brought only $5,341,-
000, Thus the average value of each parcel transferred in
1907 was $67,300, whereas the average value of each parcel
transferred in 1906 was only $36,000, The same story Is
told by the aggregate assessed valuations of the parcels
transferred for nominal considerations. The average as¬
sessed valuation of each parcel so transferred during the
flrst five weeks of 1907 was $47,000, against only $34,000
as a similar average during the corresponding period in
1906. It will be seen, consequently, that the smaller activ¬
ity at present is taking place in property much higher in
grade than the greater activity of last year.
THE purchase oC the old Everett House at Seventeenth
Street and Union Square by a syndicate of operators
for eventual improvement, has a double significance. It in¬
dicates that the old ill-equipped and poorly decorated hotels
can no longer compete with the handsome modern buildings
which are being erected np-town, and it indicates also, that
the demand for mercantile buildings is likely to be as active
to the east as it is to the west of Broadway. So far, in spite
of the many new loft buildings that have been built north
of Fourteenth Street and west of Broadway, the district
north of Fourteenth Street and east of Broadway has been
comparatively neglected. The east side of Union Square, in
particular, has not received the attention it deserves, aud if
the Court House is not erected on the site proposed by the
Commission, there can be little doubt that in the course of
time, the three blocks included in the site, will be covered
with mercantile structures of tlie usual type. Sites ou
Union Square would afford the best light and air attainable
by tall buildings in New York City; and the same statement
is substantially true of Fourth Avenue. This avenue is ex¬
ceptionally broad; and during the next few years will obtain,
between Seventeenth and Thirty-second Streets, much more
attention than it has obtained during the past few years. A
good deal of speculative buying has taken place on Fourth
Avenue uorth of Twenty-third Street, because it is believed
that the New Haveu Railroad will eventually have a station
on the site of the Metropolitan car barns, but even iu this
casOj it does not look as if Fourth Avenue would be availa¬
ble for improvement with anything except loft buildings.
The retail trade is likely to cling to locations farther west.
The situation on Fourth Avenue on the east side is similar
to that of Seventh Avenue on the west side. Both of these
avenues are so central, and consequently so convenient, that
they will necessarily be devoted in the course of time to
much more important business purposes than those to which
the avenues are now- devoted; but on the other hand it is the
intermediate avenues like Fifth, Sixth, Broadw-ay and Madi¬
son which will be seleeted as sites for the kinds of business
which depend most on popular support. As for Union
Square, the days of its availability for retail purposes are
over, aud the mercantile buildings which will be erected on
the square and in its vicinity will be devoted to the whole-