Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 47, no. 1214: June 20, 1891

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June 20,1891 Record and Guide. 979 ^ >\ ESTABLISHED ^ !WW?H aW^ 1868. De/oteD to RpA.L Estate . Suiioif/c "AR.ct^iTE:cTjR| .KouseHold DeqoratioiJ. BU51(JE3SAtJDTHEME&0fGESElV-l-llJT£l\E51 PRICE, PER YEAR IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS. Published every Saturday. fELKPHONE - , - - Cortlandt 1370, Communications sbould be addressed to C. W. SWEET. 14 & i6 Vesey St. J. 1. LINDSEY, Siimiess Manager. Vol. XLVII JUNE 20, 1891. No. 1,314 NOTICE OF REMOVAL. TJie publication offices of The Record and Guide have been ■removed to Nos. 14 and 16 Vesey street, ove>- The Mechanics' and TVaders' Exchange, a fern feet west of Broadway. TRE NEW ARCHITECTURAL QUARTERLY. The Architectueal Record, a quai-terly illustrated magazine which will be published by The Record and Guide, u-ill be issued early in July. The purpose is to make it pre-eminently the maga¬ zine of architecture and the allied arts in this country. No expense or pains will be spared to accomplish this. The contributors to the magazine will be the best known writers of the day, the illustrations will be of the highest order, the typography and printing the best procurable. The office of -publication will be at Nos. 14 and 16 Vesey street, to i hich address suhscriptions and advertisements may now be forwarded. There will be no better medium than The Architectural Record for advertisers ivhn wish to reach the architects of the United States and Canada, as well as the great part of the general public, who are interested to some extent, in the construction, decoration ai.d furnishing of buildings. The price of the magazine hasbeenput at 35 cents a copy or $1.00 a year, and readers of The Record and Guide who wish to subscribe may do so by sending their names aiid addresses to us on a postal curd. The scope of this magazine will be so wide and many of the subjects it will deal with of such general interest, that it will be quite as valuable and entertaining to the builder, the real estate agent, the property-owner and the intelli¬ gent mechanic as to the architect. It will keep them in touch with the best that is being thought and done in the art which is not only most closely related to their special business interests, but the one which, of all others, is the most practical and has certainly the directest influence upo7i ordinary daily life. THE stock market found at least one reasonable cause, in the renewal gold exports, for its Muctuationa this week. Previ¬ ous to that rise and fall were alike uncomprehensible. For some days pricea moved under the lead, it would be inadmissable to say underthe influence of Chicago Gae. What could better indicate tlie paucious and professional character of the market ? Yet Chi¬ cago Gas was in the van of more than one movement each way. Consequently, the market advanced because Chicago had forced the Gas Company into giving it a good bargain on its gas supply, and with admirable inconsistency declined because the Gaa Com¬ pany had not also secui-ed to itself an equally good bargain. With what seemed a more marked inconsistency still, prices ref used to budge on the announcement of the reduction of the Bank of England rate to three per cent. a de¬ cline of one per cent, although following a like reduction made only a fortnight before. The cause of this hesitation was afterwards made apparent by the engagement of $3,500,000 of gold for shipment to France by to-day's steamer. This unexpected renewal of the gold export movement revives the anxiety as to the condition of affairs abroad, the gold being required in the settlement of balances. It caused the throwing over of some long stocks bought during the last week or ten days in the expecta¬ tion of an advance and the withdrawal from the market of insiitu- tions which had been offering them money. Awaiting developments theie is likely to most probably with weakness. talking about buying on wheat out their money in consequence. only becaude general trade is bad. country do not seem to have disposed of their spring goods, and merchants in good standing are asking for renewals. If general trade should pick up, it will simply mean a period of very tight be dullness, accompanied People are doing more prospecta tlian putting The loan maiket is easy, The retailers all over the money with no Treasury &uiplu8 to fall back upon. So that in spite of good crop prospects, speculators may well be cautioiia. THB further reduction of the Bank of England rate of dis¬ count indicates that tbe Governors of that institution are relieved of any apprehensions as to the ability of the present large reserve of the Bank to stand even the very heavy demands which will be made upon it during the coming few montbs. It ought to go very far towards restoring tbe conBdence of the financial public in the prospects, and lead to a greater freedom in operations, both for speculation and investment. Tbe recent apprehensions have been useful in again forcing into prominence the necessity in timea of troul le of some co-operation between the large joint-stock banks and the Bank of England in maintaining rates. Alone the Bank of England, except during a few months, when levenue collections tend to give it control of the market, is almost powerless; but that institution, together with half a dozen of tbe largest joint-stock con¬ cerns, control about 33 per cent of the deposits of the United Kingdom and consequently could prevent the beating down of rates. That something will eventually be done maj be gathered from the fact that at a recent meeting of the representatives of tiie London joint stock bankp, the private banks and Scotch banks, the principle of coroperating with tlie Bank of England was approved. From a list recently published, comparing the present prices of Argentine securities with those of January, 18SI0, it is shown that the depre¬ ciation on the national and provincial loans amounted to £83,500,- 000; and it is further estimated that if to these were added the list of railway and trading companies in which England has embarked, a depreciation of nearly double the above amount would be disclosed. Meanwhile, prospecta in Argen¬ tina are not a whit more encouraging tban they were a few months ago. In Paris the prices of securities aie steady and strong. The Chamber of Deputies is continuing its discussion of the detailsofthe new tariff, and when a choicehad to be made between the duties of the government and tbose of the committee, it has al¬ ways have adopted the higher scale. In Berlin money is easy, but prices are still shading off. Tlie hope that the market might im¬ prove and unite activity with a recovery of valuea ia being grad¬ ually abandoned even by the most sanguine, Thp attention of Austrian financiers is atill concentrated on the discussion which has arisen over tbe proposed resumption of specie payments. The Fi¬ nance Minister of Austria, Dr. Steinbach, in a recent speech, de¬ clared unequivccatly that there-establishment of specie payments could not be brought about except by establish.ng a pure gold standard. He dwelt also on the obstacles to tbe realization of ihe purpose, but was inclined to think the project entirely feasible. In spite of the excellent Austrian and Hungarian harvests of laat year, the storehouses of that country are pretty well drained. Tbie year, if the moderate i;xpectations at present entertained are fulfilled, thepr-'-duction will just prove sufficient for the consumption of the monarchy, so that if Germany is obliged to suspend her corn duties, it is the American trade that will reap the principal benefit. THE difficulty at preeent found of selling in open market at satisfactory pricea large parcels of real estate emphasizes the conclusion we have recently drawn from our tables of real estate operations ; the conclusion, viz., tbat large investors have no money to lock up at the present time, Witl in the last few weeka four parcels, all of them held at more than $100,000, have been offered on tho Exchange oniy to be bid in. The flrst of these, No. 72 Wall street, 28x40, was withdrawn at a bid of $90,000, the owners hold¬ ing it at §110,000. Last week, No, 40 East 14th street, forming au L with No. 79 University place, and containing 4,368 square feet. met the samefate, Altbough rented until 1900 at from $16,- 500 to $18,000 per annum, tbe largest offer which could Le obtained was $847,000, During the past week the owners of two other large parcels were equally unsuccessful in obtaining what they considered to be a fair valuation for their property. No, 68 Broadway, running through to No. 17 New street, a little over a full city lot in size, was bought in at $370,000. Tbe building is five storiea in height, and when full, rents for $24,500 ; but it must be remembered tbat the value of such a plot, improved wilh only a five-story building, ia not detejmined by the amount of return which the small building brings in. The owners are said to bave been holding it at over $5u0,000. During the past week, also, a plot with burnt buildings thereon, measuring 137.10 on Eank street, x 1.7.6 on Greenwich street, x 123.3 in rear, x 763 on Hudson street, was withdiawn at a bid of $169,000, Thatthe inability of the owners to obtain satisfactory prices is not due to any lack of confidence in New York real estate is sufficiently well shown by tbe fact that smaller parcels of thesame kind of property on Murray street and Maiden lane have lately sold at fair valua- ations. Then many of tlie sales of unimproved property in the northern wards have been phenomenally successful, showing that there ia no lack of amall purchasers. The reason for the lack of demand for these expensive parcels is obvious. The financial pros-