Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 28, no. 715: November 26, 1881

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Real Estate Record AND BUILDERS' GUIDE. Vol. XXVIII. NEW YORK, SATUUDAY. NOVEMBER 26, 1881. No. 715 Published Weekly by The Real Estate Record Association TERMS: OIVE YEAR, in adrance.....$6.00 Oommunications should he addressed to C. W. SWEET, 137 Broadway. J. T. LINDSBY. Busmess Manager. The recent bank failures, and the uncer¬ tainty as to what Secretary Folger will do, have put a damper upon the stock niarket for the past week. Prices went off two or three points on the active stocks, and there is nothing in the immediate future to give the bulls hope of a very strong market. This condition of affairs has its influence upon the real estate market, which is not so active as it would be if stocks were booming in Wall street; but it is safe to predict that whoever buys stocks at the prices now pre¬ vailing, will be able to sell ;it higher figures during January and February. Some of the members of the West Side Association would like to have horse cars on the Boulevard for the accommodation of residents in that region. But until a gene¬ ral law is passed, no more surface roads can be constructed, and the owners of the exist¬ ing monopolies have so far defeated all at¬ tempts to pass a general law. There is some talk of introducing in New York tie electric elevated road which has proved a partial suc¬ cess in Paris and Berlin, but doubtless the ex- isting_elevated road monopolies will prevent that from being tested for some time to come. It would be a pity to put horse cars on the Boulevard. The proposition to buUd a new Stock Exchange on Broadway and Battery place, is naturally of a good deal of interest to real estate investors. An immense building overlooking the Battery, which would in¬ volve a Stock Exchange, a bank, a trust company, safe deposit vaults, a depot for the Metropolitan road, and offices for wires running to every centre of population in the world, would necessarily be a very imposing edifice. It would challenge comparison with the Produce Exchange just across the street, and would make populous that portion of the city which was first settled, and which has the greatest historical interest. So far, the enterprise seems to be a menace to the Stock Exchange for not allowing Jay Gould to do as he pleases in the matter of the ele¬ vated roads. There is no doubt but what Sage. Field and Gould cculd easily raise the money, but New York is as yet hardly big enough to support two immense exchanges. The existing Exchange has more members than the Bourse of Paris and the Stock Ex¬ change of London combined, and while it is very clear that New York is destined to be a vastly greater centre for financial transac¬ tions than it has been in the past, yet there is hardly room for another vastly greater Stock Exchange as yet. It is, however, sig¬ nificant that the neighborhood of the Bat¬ tery should be selected as the site for so many commercial exchanges. The elevated roads have actually pushed business down the island instead of drawing it further up¬ town. Had there been no elevated roads, if a new Stock Exchange was mooted, the site wotild probably be on Madison Square, or perhaps as high up as Thirty-fourth street and Broadway. ABOUT TITLES TO REALTY. The suit before Judge Larremore respect¬ ing the title to certain property on the old Mainpost road leading to Harlem, and which embraces lots on Lexington and Third avenues, in the neighborhood of Thirty- seventh street, shows how defective and unnecessarily insecure are titles to real estate. This case involves nine acres of land in a very valuable part of New York. It seems that in 1828 a mortgage was put on this property of $6,000. Then the land was sold to different persons, and finally fell into the hands of a non-resident Englishman, who died without issue. The holder of the mortgage foreclosed, secured the mortgaged property by a foreclosed title, and since then the vacant lands have been covered with houses. And now comes forward a distant relative of the original mortgagor of the property, and demands a return of the estate to her with all its valuable improvements. There are, it seems, some twenty defendants who have to fee lawyers and fight in the courts for the property they have purchased and improved in good faith. It is an anomaly in every way for a title in land to be less secure than say in a tele¬ graph company. An investor buys a hun¬ dred shares of Western Union; his broker delivers them the very next day, there is no searching for title, no expense beyond the ordinary brokerage, and yet telegraph prop¬ erty consists in poles and wires and hired offices scattered all over the country. There would seem to be thousands of difficulties connected with the holding of such property compared with a tangible piece of ground on any part of the earths surface. No prop¬ erty is so solid, so difficult to make away with,'as houses and lands. Yet, owing to laws brought down to us from a barbarous past, the conveyancing of real estate is sur¬ rounded with embarrassments. Titles have to be searched and risks taken not called for in any other kind of property. In the nature of things, there is no neces¬ sity for this insecurity. In Australia and New South Wales, under the operation of what is known as the Torrens act, real estate is subject ^to a government registry, which secures a perfect title and involves no more loss of time or expense than the transfer of an equal amount of stock in a railway company. There is no need of the purchaser taking any more precautions than if he bought a government bond or any of the securities on the stock list. In Great Britain, matters are still worse k than they are here; but during tho present year an effort has been made to simplify and improve the practice of conveyancing. It is called " The conveyancing and real property act of 1881." Its intent'is merely to get rid of tLe utterly preposterous legal jargon employed in transferring a piece of property from one person to another. Thousands of words are used where tens would be sufficient to declare the object of the instrument. The exasperating feature of this matter is, that no relief is possible. The lawyer is supreme in the Legislature and he makes laws to promote litigation. It would add 50 per cent, to the price of real estate the country over, if the uncertainties of title and the possible litigation involved in the transfer of real estate were done away with. THE CONDITION OF THINGS. The New York stock market does not rep¬ resent the country. 'Banking and stock circles are timid and bearish, and from the tone of the discussions in the financial journals, one would suppose the country is going to the dogs. As a matter of fact, the condition of trade was never so satis¬ factory. The sales are the largest ever known in the history of the country, the prices asked and received are profitable, while failures to pay are almost unknown. In the yearly meetings of the various manu¬ facturing companies which have been held recently, it was found that fewer debts were unpaid this year than in any previous year. The loss from bankruptcies and bad debts was scarcely worth mentioning in the bal¬ ance sheets. The fact is, the Wall street operators had their harvest in the fall of '79 and '80, and in the spring of '81. It is the mercantile public which is now catching the favoring gales, as stocks have gone so high they cannot go higher. The great trading class are now adding to their bank accounts, while the laboring people, who receive and spend more money than all other classes put together, were never so well to do. To com¬ plete the circle, real estate is next in order. The animation at the recent Brooklyn sale of Prospect Park lots is the first evidence of any extra interest in real estate. It is only a question of time when the movement will commence. Some dealers expect it in mid¬ winter, others in the late spring, but it may be posponed for a year or two. While stocks are high, therefore, and general busi¬ ness never better, there are no signs of any unusual excitement in real estate. Heroic remedies must be used to relieve Broadway of the confusion occasioned by its crowded vehicles. Not only must huge trucks be interdicted during business hours, but the stages and omnibusses should be en¬ tirely abolished. They are clearly out of place on Broadway and are no longer neces¬ sary, as the street cars and elevated roads reach every point that the omnibusses do. It may be that a branch from the Metropoli¬ tan Elevated should be run to Fulton Ferry.