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December 31, 1910.
RECORD ANB GUIDE
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Biisnfess jufoTheses of GEjfcR^l Wter,e$i,
WWCE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE ESQHT COLLARS
Communications shoulcl fft AitlKBBeA ^
t â– W- SWEET
Tabiished EVery Satardag
By THE KECORD AND GUIDE CO.
President, CLINTON W. SWEET Treasurer, F. W. DODGB
VIce-Prea Sc Genl. Mgr., H, W. DESMOND Secretary, F. T. MILLEIB
THom, 11 to 15 Baat 24tli Street, New Tork City
(Telephone, Madison Square, 4430 to 4433.)
•"Entered at the Post Office at New York^ N. Y., as seoond-elass matter."
Copyrighted. 1010, by The Record Se Guide Co.
Vol. LXXXVl.
DECEMBER 31, 1910
No. 2233.
REAL ESTATE AND BUILDING IN 1910.
A Review of the Year—Few Tendencies of Importance—Saved
From Another Panic—AStrong Financial Position Now Secured.
THE year 1910 has not be&n a year of any considerable
prosperity for the reai estate and building interests
of New Yor'k. Neither has it been a year in â– which
.new tendencies of great importance have appeared. Indeed
it is not unfair to speak of 1910 as merely the tail to the
kite of 1909. During the preceding year certain definite
tendencies developed and obtained great popularity and mo7
mentum. During the past year these tendencies continued
to prevail, but with very much diminished force.
During 1909 there had been a very varied activity in real
estate and building. Both residential and business districts
had shared in this activity. In the middle section of iVIau-
hattan the activity was unprecedented in its volume—and in
the distribution of property affected. A large number of
very important leases were made covering extremely val¬
uable corners on Fifth avenue and on Lougacre and other
sciuares. Business men were evideaitly appreciating the
importance of securing permanent sites for their stores in
central locations, whose value could not fail to Increase as
avenue in particular suddenly became extremely active and
practically all the side streets south of 42d street benefited
from this enlargement of the area of business occupation.
In the meantime resideJitial property was doing almost
as well, Apartment house building on Washington Heights
was revived, and became very active. Those parts of the
B'ronx, Brooklyn and Queens which were accessible were
rapidly improved. New York City, like the whole country,
had apparently completely recovered from the depression of
1908, and had resumed the process of business expansion
which had been interrupted by the panic of 1907.
The improvement in business, ho'wever, proved to be based
upon shifting foundations, as early as the spring of 1910,
ail the worst characteristics of 1907 reappeared. There
was an excessive cost of living, huge imports, diminishing
"exports, an" unwholesome expamsiou of credit, and general
extravagance and unrest. There might have been another
panic had not the banks begun resolutely to diminish their
liabilities, strengthen their resources and discourage any
continued expansion.
This change in the general conditions had aa immediate
effect upon the situation in New York; and the effect was
all the more noticeable because local conditions, also, had
suddenly become unwholesome. Large credit institutions,
which had afforded gecerous support to the construction of
loft buildiugs suddenly shut down on their loans, because
they became convinced that over-building was taking place,
particularly along the line of Fourth avenue. For the same
reason the cooistruction of apartment houses on "Washington
Heights was deprived of financial encouragement. Decisive
action of this kind immediately put a stop, also, to real estate
activity, and during the Summer and Fall the whole market
became very dull. The access of dullness was less pronounced
m the outlying boroughs than in Manhattan. During 1910
they almost maintained the level of activity enjoyed during
1909, but that activity was conflned to rather small areas
that were beneflted by exceptionally good means of com¬
munication with Mauhattan.
The comseciuence was that the end of 1910 failed to ful-
fl] the promise of Its beginning, activity rapidly disappeared
both in real estate and building; and it was succeeded by a
pervading dullness. The transactions which were consum¬
mated were a legacy from the period of better times and
did not indicate any new tendencies which would aid real
estate operators and builders in making their plans for 1911.
Table Showing Number of Conveyances
1—-------190(3.—------1 I-----------1007.
Manhattan. Bronx. Manhattan.
January..........1.911 936 1,250
February ......... 1,720 833 1,057
March ............. 2 311 1,003 1,279
'April .............2,6SO 1,128 1,445
May...............2,447 1,321 1,352
June .............. 2,261 1,167 1,157
July ............... 1,702 1,653 1,015
August ............ 1,263 892 736
September ........ 885 692 562
October ........... 980 831 772
November.......... 1,108 86S 773
Decemher ........... 1,1D4 688 056
20,422 12.012 12,034
for IVIanhattan and Bronx foi' Years 190G to 1910, Inclusive.
--------1910.-
Eronx.
736
661
715
843
933
1,015
1,101
611
523
075
521
512
I--------â– 1908.
Manhattan.
7S7
6S4
90S
950
. 867
933
817
'576
630
844
811
1,058
8,846
9,865
Bronx.
5'55
57o
579
641
603
1,116
729
467
502
625
504
627
I-----------1909.-
Manhattan.
887
813
1,089
1,084
1,111
1,025
913
622
694
675
S61
906
Bronx.
575
490
G13
GS3
G50
693
791
434
524
562
66S
569
Manhattan.
916
863
1,098
983
903
1,021
845
691
639
572
637
341
Bronx.
558
514
631
636
625
618
639
497
* 473
549
669
242
7,323 10,680 7,274 9,509 6,651
Only fifteen days in Decemher, 1910, are included.
the city grew in population and wealth. Nor was this all.
Great strides were also made in the establishment of a new
wholesale mercantile district north of 23d street. A larger
amount of money was spent on new loft buildings during
that year than during any previous year in the history of
New York; and tbese buildings were erected as far west as
Seventh avenue and as far east as Fourth avenue. Fourth
The Conveyances ^Inalyzed.
OUR readers will find interesting the tables printed here¬
with, which give the statistics of real estate transac¬
tions for 1910, compared to those of the four previous years.
,It wil! be seen from these tables that while the number of
conveyances of Manhattan real estate recorded has been cut
in half since 1906, the flgures for the years from 1907 to 1910
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SOLID LINE INDICATES MANHATTAN. CONVEYANCES; DOTTED, LINE INDICATES BRONX CONVEYANCES.