Real  Estate  Record





AND BUILDERS' GUIDE.





Vol. XX.





NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JULY 28, 1877.





No. 489.





Published Weekly by

TERMS.
ONK YEAR, hi advance....810.00.
Communications should be addressed to

C. W.  S\ir£ET,

Nos. 345 AND 347 Broadway.





THE SUMMER MARKETS.
We will forego any recurrence to the stereo¬
typed phraseology of the market reviewer con¬
cerning torpor, depression and stagnation, for
one reason that the pubUc have ,ere now speUed
off those words in bitter syllables and become
experimentally acquainted with their significance
and import; and for the other and more adequate
reason that, in some respects, they faU to reflect
the actual condition of our several mai-kets. It
is true there is a total absence of aU speculative
spirit and intent. In fact, in the whole history
of our real estate market there was never a period
marked by such a complete elimination of specu¬
lative disposition or effort. The poUcies, pur¬
poses and plans of the speculator have become as
much matters of ancient history as the wars of
the revolution and rebeUion, and are referred to
chiefly for uses of criticism and commentary.
The natural and legitimate forces of the business
are slowly and surely exerting themselves in com¬
pelling no small degree of activity. It would
misrepresent our markets to describe them as any
longer lying prone and helpless under the shock
of disaster which still paralyzes and cripples so
many important branches of general business.

The dead-lock which held our several markets
speU-bound for such a length of time, has quietly
and fairly yielded during the present year to the
genial and quickening influences of practical
sense and sound commercial poUcy. The under¬
tone of each of our respective markets is strongly
Jmpregriated with conservatism, "{)rudence,
caution, the very bottom stones of substantial
prosperity. The one branch of the market which
has failed to experience any recuperating or re¬
viving influence is that of. vacant lots, particu¬
larly when lying out in inaccessible locations;
even improvable lots show an unchecked decline
in current sales, while the character of much of
the buUding activity now being developed fails to
justify the forecast of any immediate upward
tendency in prices.

For weal or for woe the activities of the real
estate market seem to have disentangled them¬
selves from the general mesh of cjQamityj and
are once more starting into what we would fain
believe to be a healthy, natural and independent
motion. But for the chronic clamor and ceaseless
complaining we are accustomed to hear in busi¬
ness circles, we shdidd esteem the present volume
of real estate transactions aade from liquidation
and settlement as approximating the normal
standard. The rotten and worthless timber that
has long since been cdndenmed and discarded is
gradually beiog disengaged from the live and
sound body of the market and thrown far up on
the shores pf time.    Coj^^rations that have





waited with heroic fortitude, but in vain, for a re¬
newal of real estate speculation, to justify their
bad investments on mortgage, have decided to
wait no longer. By the way they have pressed
their foreclosure suits since the first of January
they seem determined to get through with them
during the present year.

In the rent market the great struggle, Avhich
ensued between landlords and tenants prior to
the first of May, resulted in such universal and
marked concessions on the part of the landlords
as to indicate quite a panic to secure eUgible and
solvent tenants. In consequence, the present
season has witnessed the exchanging of a greater
number of new leases than in any other within
the last five years. The good effect of this har¬
monizing of views is shown in the spirit and
Uveliness which characterize our leading business
thoroughfares, where few vacancies are now to
be found; many of the premises seeming to
bristle with an unwonted degree of trade activity.

It is a noteworthy fact also that because of this
returning reason of landlords, fewer private
dwellings were left tenantless after the first of
May than at any time since the panic. At such
concessions as landlords were compeUed or were
willing to make, a suflacient number of ready
tenants appeared to secure the houses offered. It
is the testimony of leading agents and landlords
that nothing but a difference in views prevented
the renting of all their apartments and houses.
Very few landlords fail to be actuated by consid¬
erations of their own interest as weU as by wise
counsel, hence the resulting surplus of empty
houses, likely to be carried over to the f aU mar¬
ket, is exceedingly smaU. The eagerness with
which houses have been hired or bought when
offered at reduced prices, has tempted many of
our leading bmlders to initiate new schemes of
bmlding enterprise in the expectation of being
able to cater to this revived demand through the
advantages that are now offered in the way of
cheap land, labor and materials.

So far as the renting of property is concerned,
we feel warranted in declaring our conviction,
after no little investigation into the subject, that
no one need faU of securing either an eUgible
tenant or a reasonably satisfactory rent for good,
improved and well located property in this city.
There never was a time so calculated to test the
renting qualities of New York property as the
present, and it is the highest encomium that can
be bestowed upon it, as weU as a significant com¬
mentary upon the whole subject of our real es¬
tate, that the rent market has boi-ne the brunt of
oppressing and adverse circumstances virith a
spirit and obstinacy that can be predicated of no
other market conmiodity. Our leadbg landlords
have exhibited in no small degree the wisdom and
shrewdness which usually characterizes them in
relinqusihng old and obsolete standards of rental
valuations and conforming their terms to the
altered sfcate of business and general affairs.
Under the present unequal and crude conditions
of pur tax system, the lan(Uords like the pubUcans
of old, have the taxes farmed out to them, and
are allowed to reassess them upon lessees. It is
no deep reproach to our landlords to assert that
they have taken fuU advantage of this privilege





in the past, and have sought to collect from ten¬
ants not only the fuU measure of taxation, which
they were required to bear, but a goodly bonus
besides. Landlords have at last realized that
there is such a thing as killing the goose that lays
the golden egg, and that no more effectual means
exist, no more oppressive or exclusive tax or
tariff system can be devised, than that of le-vying
high rents upon business men and housekeepers.
In a city Uke New York where the titles of prop¬
erty are distributed among not more than twenty
thousand persons against a population of consid¬
erably over a miUion, it -wiU be readUy seen that
it Ues in the power of a strong but small minority
to ,wit: the landowners, to effectually cripple, if
not destroy, the prosperity of the city, although
at the same time they thus destroy the produc¬
tiveness of their own property. The era of low
rents, however, which is now setting in promises
to reUeve us of any such alarming apprehensions, .
as it wiU confer upon our great and energetic
population this precious boon—abiUty to live and
carry on business at moderate cost.

In the loan market the volume of loanable
funds is large and seemingly unlimited, resulting
in the universal reduction of the standard rate for
prime loans from seven to six per cent. This redue
tion has been conceded for a year past by private
capitalists, and has enabled them to secure many
choice loans and reUable investments. The
monied institutions through obstinacy, perversity
or, perhaps, necessity, united together with the
avowed determination of resisting this innovation
upon one of their recognized rights and preroga¬
tives. Undoubtedly, the loss of one per cent, on
the mortgage loans of our great corporations
results in a hea-yy reduction of income, and is
perhaps an effect of the hard times, which they
least expected and would gladly have a-C^oided.
Even their combined strength, which arrayed
itself in stubborn opposition to prudent borrowers,
has been obUged to succumb to the inexorable
logic of events and the natural laws of trade.
We are happy to announce to our readers that the
crusade which was initiated over a year ago in
these columns, in. favor of cheaper money on
mortgage loans, has resulted in a complete suc¬
cess, and that the principal loaning institutions
not only offer their funds at six per cent., but con¬
sent to make their action retroactive and reduce
the rate on aU existing loans which are considered
" gUt-edged " at the present time. It is note¬
worthy that the two largest institutions in the
city, the Mutual and the Equitable, extend an
other valuable concession to borrowers of their
funds in not aUowing any legal fees to be charged
in connection with their loans, except the actual
disbursements for oflGlcial searches at the City
HaU. There is no reason why this custom shoiUd
not become tmiversal -with aU monied institutions
which enjoy such valuable franchises and exemp¬
tions at the hands of the people, and make so
Uttle and often such imworthy returns. The Leg¬
islature should pass an act requiring all loaning
institutions to employ counsel on salary for the
examination of titles, and forbid them to charge
any fee for such services, or to exact from the
borrower any payments but for searches and
surveys.