Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 1, no. 7: May 2, 1868

Text version:

AND BUILDERS' GUIDE. Yoi.1:-] SATURDAY, MAY 2, 18G8. [No. 7. Published Weekly .by i 0. W. SWEET & CO., Room 25 World Building, No..37 Pabk Row. TER.MS. Six months, payable in advance.....'. ........... 3 00 PRICE OF ADVERTISING. 1 square, ten lines, three months...1.............$10 00 1 square, single insertion.......................... 1 00 Special Notices, per line.......................... 20 Business cards, per month......................... 2 00 Oua readers must baar Avith us for a week or two, until the number of conveyances fall off, when we will try and give much more read¬ ing matter. At this season of the year the transfer lists are very heavy, and as they are of supreme importance we must give them, regardless of any other but building neAVs matter. As soon as Ave have room we intend to add several features to the Record which will add very greatly to its value. Our .subscribers and patrons will bear in . mind that we have moved from Room 31 to Room 25, in the building No. 37 Park Row. It is on the same floor and more accessible. OUR INFORMA.TION BUaEA-U. We find we have met a real want in the information we propose to give touching the prices of real estate. ITearly every one who has bought houses, with whom we are per¬ sonally acquainted, tells us that before pur¬ chasing they would have given, some twenty- five, and others one hundred dollars, if they could have gone to any place where they could have found out the previous history of the property they were purchasing. Said one gentleman to us, "I was offered a piece of property in Seventh Avenue for $18,000. I wanted to buy, but before doing so was anxious to know what the previous sale had been. I was curious to find out also tha record of the sale of the property on either side, also the city assessment; but after in¬ quiring, I could not get the information, and so I bought the house blindly." This experience is that of scores of other people. Remember, then, that we agree to furnish all possible information about every piece of property in New York and Kings counties. Tell us the location of a house or lot, and we will tell its history; what it sold for at last recorded sale; what the adjoining property sold for; the city assessment; the incumbrances, together with a careful valua¬ tion of the real value of the property. We also search titles, and make out careful ab¬ stracts of titles when called for. Our charges will be found moderate, and our information accurate and reUable. / BOGUS NEWSPAPERS AGAIN. In a previous issue we called attention to a class of advertising circulars, misnamed newspapers, wMch are now in existence, some of which pretend to give Real Estate statistics, but which in reality do nothing beyond adver¬ tising sales of property, by certain dealers, and the puffing of one particular dealer. The appear¬ ance of the Real Estate Record, however, has shown those interested in real estate how utterly worthless those sheets were ; hence it is not wonderful that we should enlist the interest of business men, and that confidence in the bogus journals should decrease in like pro¬ portion. Daily we receive letters of commend¬ ation, and not unfrequently notes of inquiry regarding the business affairs of these circulars, which we would not pretend to answer. The following query, however, coming as it does from one of the best houses down to\vn, seems too pertinent to be thrown aside uimoticed. It is whether the numerous reports and puffs which appear, in a certain journal, in regard to sales of real estate by a particular party, come from disinterested reporters or are paid for by the Ime ? " With regard to this matter, all we have to say is, that the o^vners of advertising circu¬ lars have a perfect right to puff themselves and their business. This is what advertising circu¬ lars are published for. " You pay your money and you take your choice." THE COMMERCIAL CITY OF THE WORLD. [From the Toledo Com^mercial.] The future of New York is a theme almost as attractive to the imagination as anything in the region of fable. It is estimated that at the present rate of increase, the city -will, in eighty years, contain a population of sixteen miUions. The increase in rents and in the value of real estate indicates the rapid growth and the pros¬ pects of the city. DweUiiig houses which in 1863 rented for ,$800, now rent in some in¬ stances, for §2,200. The rates for business houses are enormous, though real estate agents say that the dull business of the present winter has somewhat diminished the demand for large stores, which last year rented for §40,000 and §50,000 a year. The increase in the value of real estate, however, is steady and prodigious. A lot on Fifth Avenue and Central Park was sold a year ago for §13,000; in December it sold for $24,000, and is now in the market at §25,000. A dwelling on Fifty-Eighth st., be¬ tween Second and Third Avenues, purchased a month ago at $18,500, sold immediately for §20,000. A lot on Third Avenue, near Fifty- Ninth street, purchased a year ago for $60,- 000, sold within a few days for §70,000. The owner of a lot on Seventy-Seventh street and Third Avenue, which five years ago cost him §6,500, is now refusmg §21,000. Another owner who two years ago paid §10,000 for a lot on Thirty-Fourth street and Sixth Avenue, refused only a few days since an offer of secen- ty-five tliousand doUa7's. A five story house on Broadway, between Twenty-First and Twenty- Second streets, which was sold two years ago for §75,000, is now valued at $125,000. It is said by experienced men in New York, that the West alone -will soon demand every lot on the island for the accommodation of its trade. When the South is re-populated and placed again under cultivation, the demand for space must be greatly increased, and land on Manhattan Island ^vill reach fabulous prices. What, then, may we not expect when the Slia- sissippi Valley contains a population of one hundred million; when the Pacific slope teems with as many more, and when the great Union Pacific and Northern Pacific Railroads are com¬ pleted ? To this immense traffic is to be add¬ ed, a great trade from Japan, the Russian Asi¬ atic possessions, the Phillippine I.'^Iands, East- em India, the Indian Archipelago and Australia to Europe. The report of the Commissioner of the Land Office shows that the greater portion of the lighter and more costly articles of trade, from the East to Great Britain, will pass over this continent when the Pacific Railroad is completed, the rapidity of transit counterbal¬ ancing the higher rates of railroad transporta¬ tion and of transhipment at San Francisco and New York. A great portion of the teas and silks of China, it is expected, "will thus reach England and France, and a corresponding quan¬ tity of the higher-priced exports of these cotin- tries will reach Asia, over our railways. Of these commodities, the amount imported by Great Britain, during the five years ending in 1864, were 541,428,329 pounds, valued at §206,000,000. New York has the advantage of London in distances to oriental points. From London, by way of the Cape of Good Hope, to Calcutta, the distance is greater than from New York by way of San Francisco, by about one hnndred miles. To Melbourne, in Australia, the dis¬ tance is about 3,379 miles in favor of New York. Even when the Suez Canal is complet¬ ed, which, it is stated, will be in 1869, the dis¬ tances to five important oriental points -will still be against London. From New York by way of San Francisco, and from London by way of the Suez Canal, the difference in favor of New York is as follows to the points named. To Melbourne, 379; Yokohama, 3,989 ; Shang¬ hai, 1,914; Hong Kong, 314, and Manilla, 504 miles. With her immense commerce by way of the Atlantic, with the vast region of the United States looking to her for supplies, and with the trade of Europe with the oriental world taking ship at her docks and train at her depots. New York will be the most important city on the globe, the very commercial centre of the world. Manhattan Island must soon be cover¬ ed ^vith masses of business blocks, and the im¬ mense population of the city must seek places to sleep beyond the river. Persons looking out for a rapidly growing city in which to locate and for a place to make investments in real es¬ tate, may turn to New York with confidence. Twenty years hence lots may be sold for aa many guineas or eagles as will cover them Arnold & Constable propose to build j^ splendid store on Broadway, between I8tl^ and 19th Streets. It is to be on the west side. Before they commence, it would be well to see if Broadway is not to be widened between Union Square and 59 th Street.