Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 28, no. 704: September 10, 1881

Text version:

Real Estate Record AND BUILDERS' GUIDE. Vol, XXVIII NEW YOKK, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10. 1«H1. 704 Published Weekly by The Real Estate Record Association TERMS: ONE YEAR, In advance.....$6.00 Commimications should he addressed to C. W. SWEET, UI Broadway. J. T. LINDSEY, Busmess Manager. Architects in New York and Brooklyn, say that very few plans for new houses are now being considered. The high price of labor and material has checked new build¬ ing enterprises. Capitalists prefer to wait and see what luck the houses underway wiU have, before giving out new contracts. But then new building enterprises are rarely be¬ gun at this particular season. It is during winter and spring that architects have most work to do. In the mean time, there is a great scarcity of houses to rent. Those underway or ready for occupancy are gen¬ erally for sale. We think it a good time to buy houses. There is no likelihood that la¬ bor or material will be any cheaper for tlie next three years, indeed the vast increase to our currency looks to higher prices for every product of human hands. Should there be an active demand for houses as seems not unlikely, later on this fall, the architects will have all the work they can do next winter and spring. -------«------_ In our news columns will be found the particulars of a large sale of New York property to Jay Gould. That great railway king is not so ostentatious in the private houses he occupies, as his supposed rivals, the Vanderbilts. But Mr Gould in his new house, at the northeast corner of Fifth avenue and Forty-seventh street, will have much more spacious quarters than in his more modest home across the street. The artistic world will be glad to learn, that one of Mr. Gould's new houses is to be devoted to a picture gallery which will be quite equal, if not superior, to any collection in this country. The rapid construction of D. O. Mills' building on Broad street, excites the surprise of all who note its progress from week to week. It is now said the building will be ready for occupancy by early spring. It seems the work is going forward day and night, a calcium light being brought into play after darkness has set in. The experi¬ ment of working by night is said to have proved highly successful. All the laborers are not employed, but the ground is cleared, brick, stone, iron and other material is all got in readtuess for next day's work. Two calcium lights on Broad street, and two on Exchange place are made use of. The work oh the new Produce Exchange is also pushed forward during the night by the aid of artificial illumination. The-ability to work by night as well as day out of doors, may lead to many impor¬ tant results. It increases the demand for labor and is a great saving of capital, for property can be made productive in half the time if buildinjjj goes along during the night as well as the day. While the immediate result may be to temporarily increase the price of labor the permanent effect will be to the interest of the employers. It needs no argument to show that when a vast and costly structure can be ready for occupancy within one instead of at the end of two years, it will be to the advantage of all in¬ terested in the building, especially the owners. THE GENERAL MARKETS. It begins to look as if the bulls were to have their say about prices on the Stock Ex¬ change. The bears so far have had a good long pull. The market has been a s,ale from Decoration Day down to last Saturday, that is to say, whoever kept short of the market dm-ing all that period made money. The general argument was that prices were too high and that crops would be short. Well, prices have come down from 15 to 25 points, and it would seem that the full effect «)f the poor crops had been discounted. What thea are the present prospects ? The bulls say with a good deal of force that their time has come. A rising of the speculative tide is now in order. Tney argue that rail¬ road earnings, the country through, were never larger. Some few of the roads travers¬ ing the corn belt show the effects of the cut¬ ting of rates, but the mercantile and manu¬ facturing business of the country is so im¬ mense that the roads are making more money on the whole than ever before in the history of the country. The carriage of merchandise and passengers was never larger, and these are always the most trust¬ worthy supports of our railway system. Then our imports of gold are continuous. The bulls claim, with some show of reason, that we have never imported gold without an advance in prices following. So far we have received about eleven million dollars in gold, against seventeen million gold for tLe same period last year. The cotton bills have not yet come into play, and it looks as if we may receive from forty to fifty million before next spring. This, with what we retain of buUion pro¬ duced in our own country, wiU make an immense addition to our currency, without counting the forty-six million of sUver cer¬ tificates issued, or the two hundred thou¬ sand dollars per month added to our bank note circulation. When we remember that every doUar received from abroad or from our mines is the basis of four dollars in dis¬ counts, it is evident that an advance in prices in everything is inevitable. If our farmers have not so much wheat and com, the prices they get are so much better as to make up the deficiency. There was a large surplus left over from last year which would be available for this sea¬ son. Labor is employed and at such high wages that the working classes have begun to travel, which of course helps the price of railway shares. There is no probability of any such insane kiting of prices as occurred last spring, but there is a reasonable pre¬ sumption that stocks not affected by the crops will be held for higher figures. There is another bull influence which also must be kept in mind. Some of the mosi long-head¬ ed, enterprising and wealthy capitalists! of the country have embarked in new railway enterprises which they propose t9 see carried through. These enterprises have had a set back, but they will recover and be pushed to completion. The spfculative spirit of the country is by no means dead ; at present it is quiescent, but it will soon show itself not only in the stock market but in every de¬ partment of the active business of the country. OUR ELEVATED ROADS. Sometime since we called the attention of the public to the impossibility of the elevated roads carrying passengers during any hour of the day for 5 cents. We said that the law per¬ mitted them to charge higher fares, and that if the road went into the hands of a receiver, he would be forced to run the elevated sys¬ tem for the benefit of the stockholders, and not of the public. We said all this at a time when there, was a unanimous howl on tne part of the daily press against our system of elevated roads. The companies were held up as criminals because they did not pay the outrageous tax lievied upon them by the city and courts. We believe that an unjust tax, and have tried to discriminate between the manipulators of the stock of the elevated road and the roads themselves. The latter have proved of enormous benefit to New York, the former are among the very worst specimens Wall street has ever produced. President Galloway, of the Manhattan Company, is now out with a statement that every passenger carried costs the Manhattan Company 8.62 cents, while the average fare is 6.81, leaving a net loss of 1.81 on every person carried. Receiver Hopkins also shows by comparison with other roads, that the elevated system is the cheapest ever at¬ tempted. We judge that the Receiver will charge the full legal fare before two months are over, and then, of course, wfil come the cry of indignation from thesame people who so stupidly insisted upon the outrageous tax levied upon the elevated roads. The news¬ paper howl against them was due to the manipulation of the speculative directors, who were then short of the stock, at high prices, but who since then have, no doubt, loaded up at the lower figures. It is understood that nothing is being done towards draining the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth Wards. Everything is in readiness, but the Corporation Counsel de¬ clines to execute the law because of the poor pay allowed the Commissioners. An effort was made to increase the compensa¬ tion of the Commissioners who would act under the law, but it failed. It seems to be Ltoo bad that the health of 40,000 persons