Please note: this text may be incomplete. For more information about this OCR, view
About OCR text.
July 22, 1905
RKCORD AND GUTDE
^ ESTMOSHTO^ ^i^H 2P^ 1898,
Basnfess wto Themes Of GtiJER^liKTEBps7.j
PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS
Tnblisfied eVerg Saturdag
Communications should db addreBBSd to
C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Street. New York
Telephone. Cortlandt 3157
"Entered at the Post Office al ITeio York, if. T.. aa second-class matter."
Copyright by the Real Estate Record and Builders' Golde Company.
V (jl. i_:.VAVl.
JULY 22, 1905.
No. 1949.
INDEX TO DEPARTMENTS.
(Advertising Section.)
Page. Page.
Cement .............. xxv Law ................. vlii
Clay Products .......... sxlv Machinery ............ v
Contractors and B lilders. vi Metal Work ........... xxii
Fireproofing .......... ii Stone ................ sxlil
Granite .............. xlv Quick Job Directory. .., xxvii
Heating .............. ts Heal Estate ........... xli
Iron and Slecl.......... xviii Wood Products ........ xxvi
I'T certainly looks aa if tbe Stock Market tMs summer was
aceiimulatiag eEough ammunition for a considerable move¬
ment towards higher prices. The new facts affecting stock
values as tbey come out week after week, all look in that
direction. One railroad after another Increases its rate of dis¬
tribution to its stockholders- The weekly crop reports tell a
atory of excellent results and still better promises. There are
indications that tbe Itill in the iron trade Is over and that the
demand is overtaking tbe enormous rate of current produc-
lion. There are very few flaws in the general business sltua-
jA^on,. ,.If, consequently, prices do not go up, it will be because
tbey are already too high; and it would be difiBcuit to prove
that such is the case. Certain of the best railroad stocks are,
indeed, selling at figures wbich net a very low return to their
owners; and large as are the traffic returns of .these roads,
they are not large eno'ugh to justify bigger dividends under
' anything like prevailing conditions. But a dozen stocks of this
kind could he named in which there is room for a ten point
rise; while the prices of tbe preferred shares of a number of
different industrial companies sbould be good for an equal
if not a greater appreciation in value. Tbese preferred shares
will sell on almost a five per cent, basis, as soon as it is as¬
sured that they will continue to pay their full seven per cent,
Sividends. Thus, while there may not be room for anything
like the increase in prices that there was in July, 1904, it
should be possible to effect substantial advances in many stocks
without necessarily incurring the penalty of a dangerous re¬
action.
'T^HB real estate market has at last settled down to a state
â– ^ of midsummer calm. The number of transactionfl re¬
ported is extremely small and their importance is smaller still.
Nine out of every ten consist of flats and tenements, in which
a certain amount of trading is always taking place; but the
market is exhibiting no new tendencies. The demand for
vacant lots remains meagre; and no Indication is being af¬
forded of the form which the activity will take place in the
fall. In the meantime brokers are beginning to be very busy
with the fall renting, and upon the results of this business the
building operations of the coming season will largely depend.
It is understood that renting conditions continue to be very
satisfactory all over the city, and in all kinds of property. It
is possible for landlords to increase rents still further in many
instances; and there are no indications of over-building in
any important kind of improvement This fact assures an¬
other year of wholesome activity in 'New York real estate.
The pace will probably be a little more moderate than It has
been during the past season, because there will not be the
same excuse for speculation in vacant land; but a diminution
in the amount of speculation in unimproved property com¬
pared to the amount of building and investment operations
will be a benefit rather than a drawback to the market.
T^llB approval ot the plana for new rapid transit routes by
â– *â– the Board of Estimate and Apportionment has passed
almost unnoticed, but it is none the less a convincing indica¬
tion of the desirability of the recent law, which took this busi¬
ness entirely out of tbe hands of the Board of Aldermen. Tbe
Aldermen would have consumed several months in approving
routes, which the Board of Estimate confirmed in a few days.
They would have tried to Justify their authority by Insisting
on certain changes in the proposed plans, and, if their action
up to date is any guide, these changes would have been all
to tbe bad. The Board of Estimate, on the other hand, knows
that the routes established are the result of years of considera¬
tion by experts and that every detail of the plans haa been
submitted to rigid scrutiny both by interested and disinter¬
ested people.' It is generally agreed that the Rapid Transit
Commission has laid out a group of subways which will ctiinu-
late competition among bidders and provide the city with im¬
proved means of travel along tbe most necessary lines. The
time for consideration and discussion is over. The thing most
to be desired at present is vigorous action, so that the city
may reap the advantage of the new subways at the earliest
possible moment. At best the legal preliminaries to the letting
of a subway contract consume a long time, and are sufficiently
precarious, and everything should be done to diminish them.
The prompt action of the Board of Estimate gives the public
some assurance that if there is any delay hereafter it will be a
delay which is unavoidable.
Tenements and Dwellings in the Bronx.
T^HE Record and Guide has frequently commented on the
â– â– â– fact that practically the only classes of buildings erected
in the B^ronx at the present time are tenement houses and
frame dwellings. Tbe local industries of the Bronx are not
developing to any considerable extent. Very few factories are
being erected and about the only business undertakings for
which house-room Is being provided are enterprises which
are necessitated by tbe increasing population—such as small
retail shops, places of amusement, storage warehouses and
power houses. Tbe population of the Bronx finds employment
in Manhattan offices and workshops, even more than does tbat
of Brooklyn, and probably nineteen-twentieths of this popu¬
lation is being housed in tenements. Five-sixths of all the
money spent for new Bronx building goes into tenement
houses, and a large part of the rest into frame dwellings. The
number of brick dwellings now under construction will not
house more than 1,000 people. It is no wonder under these
circumstances that brokers and operators who are interested
in Bronx real estate are beginning to wonder whether some¬
thing cannot be done to make the character of Bronx build¬
ing more interesting and more various. Some five hundred
real estate brokers and business men have received letters from
the North Side Board of Trade asking them to express some
opinion as to the best kind of building which in their opinion
Lhe Bronx can hope to get, and it is stated that a very general
sentiment exists in favor of more one or two-family private
dwellings. The question is, however, not what people would
like, but what is demanded by prevailing economic conditions;
and it seems to the Record and Guide that, although there is
room for a somewhat larger supply of one and two-family
dwellings, the price of Bronx land and the character of the
Bronx population will during the next flve years demand an
overwhelming predominance of tenement-house construction.
In a city like New York poor people are bound to live in
tenements; ana the increasing population of the Bronx is de¬
rived largely from the poor. The Bronx is now getting a very
large part of the overflow from Manhattan, and this overflow
consists of immigrants wbo cannot afford to pay more than
the lowest prevailing rents. These rents are, indeed, high
enough, amounting as they do to from $3.75 to $5 per room;
but they constitute the cheapest living accommodations which
the poor man can find, and he must necessarily use them. Ai
the present time tbe class of tenement houses in which rents
are lowest are well filled, whereas brokers are agreed that the.
higher priced fiats have been over-^built and contain a good
many vacancies. People of this class will continue to con¬
stitute by far the largest fraction of the Increasing population
of the Bronx, and they will never be able to live in anything
but tenements. By herding together and taking boarders, they
are able to pay rents which are demanded; and they could
uot In any conceivable manner manage to pay for accommoda¬
tions in one or two-family private dwellings.
Of course a certain proportion of the new Bronx residents
consists of people wbo are able to afford a rental of $400 a
year or more; and in other cities these people nearly always
occupy detached dwellings. But in New York such is not the
case. An Inhabitant of Manhattan must be prepared to pay
a rental of $1,200 a year, in case he wants a house for his own
exclusive use; aud there are very few houses, which can l>e
had as cheap as that. A Bronx inhabitant can obtain a pri¬
vate bouse or half a private house for a good deal less than
$1,200 a year, but he is obliged to pay so much more than is
the case in other large cities that the numljer of people who
^