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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 26, no. 658: October 23, 1880

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Real Estate Record AND BUILDERS' GUIDE. Vol. XXYI. NEW TOEK, SATUBDAT, OCTOBER 23, 1880. No. 658 Published Weekly by TERMS. ONE VEAR. in advance....SIO.OO. Oommunications should be addressed to C. W. SVirfiET, No. 137 Broadway The time has come when the Real Estate Record may congratulate owners of and deal¬ ers in realty on the healthy condition of the market. Never having been identified with the small, though reckless, crowd of specula tors who see a " coming boom " in the sale of every vacant lot, we cannot be charged with taking, at all times, a too sanguine view of the situation. On the contrary, if any fault has been found with us, it has always been on the part of those who claimed that we erred when, in years past, we did not endorse their rose-colored views. Now, however, with the evidence before us of renewed activity, not observable, al¬ ways, to the uninitiated, we can point to the observations made in these columns for a year past, as to the i)rogress this market was making toward a position where all the energy and activity of those interested would be called into play. Not that there is any occasion for boasting, as to greatly enhanced prices. Such a condition w^ould be fatal to a permanent healthy state of the real estate market. On the contrary, with the exception of some notable Broadway and Fifth avenue property, there has been no extraordinary increase in values. And yet, activity, at reasonable prices, has at last set in, and there is a market, not only for improved and un¬ improved city property, but, also, for su¬ burban acres. The various items of news, given in our market review, this week, embrace import¬ ant transactions in almost every part of this city, Westchester county and New Jersey, and these, added to the successful public auction sales, give indication of as lively and sound a market as we have seen since the close of the panic. NOTES, POINTS AND FORECASTS. That New York Central wiU double its stock and declare thereupon five per cent, dividends, the law not permitting the pay¬ ment "of more than eight per cent, on the present capital stock. That Erie will either declare no dividend on the]Preferred stock or else a disappointing one. The road has earned six per cent, on the Preferred and two and a half on the Common, but there are so many improve¬ ments needed that the surplus will be used up in making them, for Erie cannot come into the market for a new loan. That Missoiu-i, Kansas & Texas is an ex¬ cellent purchase for a long term, in view of the enormous growth of Texas, the business of which, in a railroad way, is monopolized by the Iron Mountain and the Missouri, Kansas & Texas. That an effort will be made when Congress meets to open up the Indian Territory. The agitation will add to the market value of St. Louis and San Francisco, and Missouri, Kansas and Texas pending the discussion. That there may be a partial break in stocks next week, due to a doubt as to who may carry the election November 2d, but a buoy¬ ant market is expected just immediately before and immediately after the election. That stocks will be duU toward the end of November and through December, with per¬ haps a serious break in prices, to be followed in January by the highest prices known in the history of the "street." That mining shares will continue to drop, unless there is a " strike " on the Comstock. That there can be no revival of the specu¬ lation in mining shares without the help of the Comstock, unless some of the new mines come to the front as dividend payers. The most hopeful properties are the Horn Silver, the Bassick, the Bull Domingo, the Silver Cliff, the Plata Verde and the Chryso¬ lite. The Hukill also ought to be a dividend paying property soon. That there may be something in Erie after all; for now a sti-ange rumor is ch-culated to the effect that the Lackawanna extension to Buffalo has really been undertaken to capture Erie stock at low figures. The ex¬ tension will cost 110,000,000; but vastly more than that sum will be saved in the price of Erie, for those who intend to pur¬ chase it and make it a part of the Wabash system. In other words, the Erie and Lackawanna combined will enter the field in opposition to the New York Central and with as many tracks, and the advantage of a water line to Buffalo. That the great ambition of Jay Gould's life is to once more become possessed of Erie. He was expelled from its manage¬ ment in disgrace ; and it will be a fitting se¬ quel to his financial career were he to capture it and make it a part of a great trans-conti¬ nental Hne. That the rise in St. Paul has caught Russel Sage and Jay Gould short of that stock in the eighties. The street has lots of paper bearing Russel Sage's signature, in which he gives calls on St. Paul for ninety. That the weakness in the Gould stocks is because that great operator is really crippled by having. made mistakes as to the future price of the Grangers and Lake Shore. He was short of Lake Shore last spring, and is short of St. Paul and Northwest to-day. That Huntington and the California rail¬ way operators are preparing for a grand coup shortly after the completion of the new line to the Pacific Ocean. When the Atchison & Santa Fe reaches Florida City, about Janu¬ ary 1st, it will be found that a combination has been made between the Central Pacific, the Atchison & Santa Fe, the Louisville & Nashville and the CJiesapeaka & Ohio for through traffic between NorfoUi and San Francisco. WHOLESALE BROADWAY. In hurrying to and from their places of business, New Yorkers are aj)t to overlook the changes that have been wrought of late in that section of our great thoroughfare, which ought, henceforth, to be known as "wholesale Broadway." We have, hereto¬ fore, alluded to the extraordinary improve¬ ments, projected and underway, as well a3 the great demand for offices from the Bat¬ tery up to Murray street. To-day, we desire to call attention to the improvements and changes along that great thoroughfare above Murray street, and the shifting of various Hnes of trade. We then find, with, of course, here and there minor exceptions, the whole¬ sale business lines defined as follows: Mun-ay to Duane street—shoes and hard¬ ware. . Duane to Canal street—drygoods, commis¬ sion and wholesale. Canal to Great Jones street—^wholesale clothing, hats, millinery and notions; This section includes, of course, the cross streets, of which Broadway is the centreline of demarcation. Property that has been lying dormant along Broadway, in the vicinity of Prince and Bleecker streets, now shows con¬ siderable signs of activity, as the clothing and miUinery trade is demanding constantly more and more room; and this increased ac¬ tivity, continuing up to and even beyond the Grand Central Hotel, shows itself by the renting of stores and lofts at figures which would have been considered high, two or three years ago. The increase, also, in that section has not been made at the sacrifice of property located further down town. It does not at all, for instance, affect the rental of stores in and around Worth, Thomas, White and other streets. On the contrary, several drygoods firms, that were above Ca¬ nal street, have recently moved again below that street, so as to be in the midst of the wholesale drygoods market, which now stretches from Duane to Canal street. Rents, all along Broadway, went up last year twenty per centi, and present indica¬ tions axe that another increase, from ten to