Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 30, no. 758: September 23, 1882

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Real Estate Record AND BUILDERS' GUIDE. Vol. XXX. NEW YOEK, SATUEDAT, SEPTEMBEE 23, 1882. N-. 758 Published Weekly by The Real Estate Record Association TERMS: ONE YEAE, In advance ----- $6.00 Commimications should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 191 Broadway. J. T. LINDSEY. Busmess Manager. In a short time The Real Estate Record will take a new departure. The time has come, in the opinion of its owner, when the real estate interests can sup¬ port a representative occupying a wider field than this paper has filled during the fifteen years of its exist¬ ence. The favor with which the Becoed has been re¬ ceived and the steady growth in its business and cir¬ culation gives its proprietor assurance that it will be generously sustained in the new and important field it will hereafter occupy. Several new departments will be added to this paper, while it will also have its say upon such matters as interest the public at large, but subscribers may rest assured that none of the old specialties will be neglected. The real estate and building interests will be faithfully attended to, and all the difiCerence to our patrons will be a much better and more costly paper, covering a larger field and dealing with topics of general interest. Next week we shall probably have a more definite announcement to make. was met by his veto. Were it not for him a new aqueduct would now be under way, and street cars would be running on Forty-second street, on the west side, and in other localities where they are needed. The candidates on tie opposing tickets for gov¬ ernor are men of character and ability, and with either of them New York would prob¬ ably fare better than if Alonzo B. Cornell had been renominated and re-elected. to believe that the growth of New York will be greater in the future than the past de¬ cade. The list of conveyances for the week end¬ ing September 2l8t, compared with the cor¬ responding week of last year, show somewhat fewer transactions, though the consideration iu the aggregate is larger. The official record of mortgages, also, shows that busi¬ ness continues apparently dull, but as these entries at the Register's office represent the transactions for three or four weeks back they do not tell the whole story. Our " Out Among the Builders" and "Gossip" depart¬ ments, as well as the plans filed at the Bureau of New Buildings, shows that the activity expected this fall has commenced. Indeed, there is every likelihood that the real estate market will be more active this than during any previous fall since the time of the paper money inflation speculation. The following is the official record : CONA'EYANCES. 1881 Sepc. 15 to Still, no "boom" in the stock market. The wiseacres are attributing the inertness of the market to the manipulations of Jay Gould, Russell Sage and their followers, but surely it is much more reasonable to ac¬ count for the dullness of the market to the employment of the money of investors in the general business of the country, especi¬ ally in moving the immense crops. If our readers will re-peruse an article in the Real Estate Record of September 2d, they will find there the. reasons which would seem to point to a dull market until some time in November. There is alway s a contraction of loans for stock speculative purposes between the middle of August and the first of No¬ vember. Last year it amounted to fully $30,000,000, but this shrinkage was offset by the importation of gold from Europe. This year there is no likelihood of any puch im¬ portation, and hence the full effect of the money shrinkage is now being experienced in Wall street. This attributing every rise and fall in the market to individual opera¬ tors is very common but very erroneous. The really great operator is one who follows the market and does not attempt to force it up or down against the laws which govern the financial world. The future is all right. In a general way the market is a bull one, and those who operate from now until next May on the long side will be pretty sure to make money. Of course, there are the possi¬ ble accidents to be kept in mind. The break¬ down of a favorite secui-ity. the unexpected rottenness of some great corporation, the exceptional tightness of money might bring on a short-lived panic, but even in the event of such a catastrophe, the prices would re¬ act to higher figures than ever. Not only are new school houses needed, but New York wants at least half a dozen new hotels. There is room for a ho?telry as much finer than the Palace Hotel of San Francisco as that edifice is superior to any hotel in New York. It is the metropolis of the United States that should have the great¬ est building of the kind in the world. What is especially needed is hotels for the busi¬ ness people in the lower part of the city. Merchants, jobbers and mercantile agents want to be near the large stores and not far from the places of amusement, and hence it has been found recently that the hotels below Twenty-third street have done relatively the best business. New York is n*iiw abundantly supplied with theatres, but she wants more hotel accommodations'. 2i, mclusive. Number................. Ill Amoimt involved........ $1,381,992 No. nonunal............. aO N o. 23d and 24th Wards.. itj Amount involved........ .f 45,928 No. nominal............. 6 MORTGAGES. Number................ 149 Amount involved........ 81,159,231 No. ats per cent......... a9 Amouni, involved........ $235,681 No. to Banks, Trust and Ins. Co.'s............... 28 Amount involved....... |461,450 1882. Sept. 15 to 21, inclusive. 104 $1,758,008 a3 19 $35,945 4 125 $1,105,018 29 $350,250 16 $254,500 The fact that Governor Cornell was free with his vetoes and that he was antagonized by Jay Gould made him popular with a large section of the voters of this state, but owners of realty, interested in New York city property, are quite reconciled to his tempor¬ ary retirement from political life. Every improvement intended to benefit NewYork New York needs more school houses. The Board of Estimates has not dealt fairly by the Board of Education. The latter has re¬ peatedly asked for authority to build new school houses where they were needed, but the other board has evaded the demand by reducing all the appropriations in gross with¬ out specifying items. This has resulted to the partial stoppage of the work of erecting new school buildings, so that the accommo¬ dations for the children have not by any means kept pace with the marvelous growth of our population within the last three years. Such buildings as have been erected are on the lower part of the Island, but proper provision has not been made for the large increase of school children in the up-town wards. There should be commenced at once fuUy seven new school houses, for there is every reason REFORM IN OUR LAND LAW. The address of Mr. Dwight H. Olmstead on the proposed reform in the transfer of titles of real estate deals with a subject of vital importance to owners of realty. We publish the lecture of Mr. Olmstead before the Bar Association of this State, and though lengthy our readers will find it of exceptional interest. The startling fact ap' pears that there has been no. such thing as a thorough search in titles in the city of New York for the past twenty years—in other words, the lawyers who furnish abstracts of titles for their clients are forced to depend upon the accuracy and honesty of the searchers in the Register's office, whose records are their own private property, over which neither the city nor the property holders, nor the Register himself, has any control. Our recording system has in fact broken down and must be reformed. The Bar Association of the city, the Chamber of Commerce, the West Side Association, and other organizations have all agreed as to the peril of our present system and the necessity for a radical change. Mr. Olmstead very pertinently asks why a reform may not be effected by which real may be made to as¬ similate to personal property. In other words, he pleads that the law may be so changed as to promote the transfer of titles in real estate as cheaply, as expeditiously and as surely as transfers of stocks and bonds. He sees no reason why, in the na¬ ture of things, an investor should not buy a house with the same ease and economy of time and money as he could buy a hundred shares of stock. It seems that in New Zea¬ land this feat can be accomplished. He thinks that it can and will be done some time in New York. Mr. Olmstead argues, and with reason, that the result would be of immense benefit to real estate. Titles would become negotiable and vast addition be made to the active capital of the country, Land titles and mortgages could then be used as collaterals in banks, and would pass ^ from hand to hand as readily as stocks do