Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 62, no. 1600: November 12, 1898

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November 12, 1898. Record and Guide 699 31111. upiu\iflf;n_ ^ ESTABIJSHEIi^lW^paaiy^le68. Biisntess Alto Themes or GEjienA iKreppT^ PRICE PER TEAR IN ADVANCE SIX DOLLARS. Published every Saturday, Tblephone, LCoktlabdt 1370. Communications should be addressed to C. "W. SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Street. /. 2. LEND SET, Business Ma/nager. "Entered at the Post-OS ice, at Neiv York.N. T., as second-class inalter." Vol. LXII. NOVEMBER 12, 1S98. AN easy explanation of the present enormoiiS' buying of in¬ vestment securities is found in the large amounts of moQ'ey seeking use at low rates. It does not take much calcula¬ tion to show that, with four and flve months' money at 3%, it pays to buy good 4% issue lu the 90s and 5% ones at not too high a premium, provided only that the interest is sure to be paid and the prospect is good for a sustention of quoted values. The condition of trade and the results of the election, which latter ■were anticipated ,by Wall Street, account for the good buying to which we have directed attention for two weeks past. It is risking nothing to say that this counU-y was never stronger in available funds than it is to-day, nor has i't ever had such good pro-spects for keeping so. Some causes contributing to this state of things are given in another column. The Important question to consider here is, whether the money market will continue for long to favor Wall Stree't as it does now? The answer to this question depends on the ability of trade and commerce to absorb funds. As soon as the expansion of busi¬ ness renders extensive increased commercial demands on the money market necessary, corporate securities will lose the ad¬ vantage of cheap money that they enjoy now, and we s'hall see here a repetition of the movements which, for example, put Consols up in London to prices they had never known before and later brought them down again to flgures normal for good times. The process of rise and fall took a few years to com¬ plete. In our own case, and particularly in view of our pe¬ cuniary strength and the confirmation of confldenee as the fears of currency agitations are removed by the ballots, there is no apparent likelihood of dearer money for siome time to corae. In¬ dustrial and commercial develiopment will absorb more and more money, and so take it away from the speculative markets, as time goes on; but this is a slow movement, and the point at which it will materially force up rates is a good way ahead. -----------«----------- CAUTI'O'N is so marked a characteristic of Lord Salisbury that the speech delivered by him at the Guildhall ban¬ quet this week, may be accepted as reassuring on the whole. His intimation that Great Britain could not afford to relinquish a policy of readiness for any emergency had no special applica¬ tion to Prance or the Pashoda incident. It might, with equal justice, have been made one or two years ago as now, or, for that matter, ten years ago, because the contest, which until now has happily been diplomatic, but might have and still may ait any moment become martial, for the control of the tropical trade, has been going on and musit continue for a long time to come. What is actually being accomplished is a re-distribution ol the trade of the world, and the conservation or di&persion of the estates of incompetent peoples, in which the issues are so vital and colossal, that any man on whose words responsi¬ bility rests, may well display caution in his utterances. The Faahoda incident having excited the world and sent the prices of securities fluctuating, will make way for others of more im¬ portance. France ought to have something to say about the Emperor William's policy in Asia Minor, where a Prench tradi¬ tion has prevailed since the time of the Pir&t Crusade, and Prance has been the protector of the Christian congregations, and which Queen Hortense's pretty song, "Partant pour La Syrie," that our grandmothers used to sing, was intended to perpetuate. Paris has abolished the octroi on wine, cider and beer, and, to compensate the loss of income created thereby, proposes to tax alcohol, revenues of houses to be paid by land¬ lords and rents lo be paid by tenants, besides many other things. The stringency of money at Berlin continues, as does also, there being relatively between the two, great industrial activity in many directions, particularly in electrical work. The Union ■Electric Company, founded by the T.,ndwig Loewe, a local com¬ pany, and the Thompson-Houston, of Boston; has just Increased its capita! from ?750,000 to $4,500,000; a Nuremberg electric company has also raised its capital, by about $1,250,000. The Vienna surface roads are to be reorganized, converted to electric and operated by Siemens & Halske, i. e., the Deutsche Bank of Berlin. Among the conditions of the contract are these: ThM changes of carriages (transfers) are to be paid for at a stipu¬ lated rate, and that children, who pay half price, are to be measured by the guard (conductor) with a m^tre measure, whether for height or breadth is not reported. The Vienna Bourse narrowly escaped a panic ou the discovery of the bubonic plague in that city; one death outside of hospital circles would have precipitated it. The Indian jute crop of the present season is estimated at 8S% of the normal. Egyptian cotiton prospects are less favorable than they were a year ago, and a decline of 50,- 000 to 75,000 bales is expected. The cheapness of the American cotton is, to a considerable extent, displacing others from the market. One of the m'ost remarkable things brought out by cotton statistics, is ths aibility and apparent desire of the grow¬ er to give the consumer the advantage of the increase in his own demand; the increase of the production being continually more than equal to the increase of consumption, although the latter is quite large. 1,600 T0E charter provides for a "just and equal" tax throughout the Greater New York. Until the annual record of the assessed valuation of real and personal estate in the several boroughs shall have been completed, some weeks hence, it will be impossible to express in precise figures the effect of consoli¬ dation on taxes in Manha;ttan and Brons. However, that fhe incidence of taxation will fall with greater severity on those boroughs than was originally expected is patent, inasmuch aa the budget for 1899 has turned out to be some thirteen millions of do-i-ars larger than was anticipalted. In Brooklyn, at the last tax levy, the assessed valuation on real estate was popularly sup'- posed to be 75% of the actual value, and in Manhattan and Bronx 60%. In Richmond and Queens the average was probably 50%. Public policy, dictated by the necessity for securing a reasonable debt margin, requires tlhat tne assessed valuation shall be raised more or less uniformly throughout all the horougihs to 75%. If strict uniformity were to be o'bserved, some $446,800,000 would be added to the assessed valuajtion of real estate in Manhattan and Bronx. There is reason to believe, however, that the addi¬ tion will not exceed $300,000,000, though there are some who put the prospective increase much higher than either of these figures. The increase, as was intimated last week, will prob¬ ably be obtained by raising the valuation of commercial and the better class o^f residential properties, particularly in the middle sections of Manhattan, from 20 to 40 per cent, tenements on the East and West Sides rem'aining untouched. According to un- oflicial, but, nevertheless, quite reliable report, the tax rate for the coming year will not be over 2.50. The average tax rate in Brooklyn last year was 2.83; in Richmond and Queens 4.50. Aa the assessed valuation in Brooklyn remains the same, except on a small quantiLy of suhurban land, which has hitherto been rated according to its value for agricultural use, the considerable decrease in the burden of taxation in that borough will be meas¬ ured by the drop in the tax rate. Long Island City, ■Where both tlie assessed valuation and the tax rate were unusually high, will also experience material relief. To Manhattan and Bronx, that is, the old New York city, consolidation will mean, accord¬ ing to the best available information, an arbitrary addition of at least $300,000,000 to the as-sessed valuation on their real estate, and an increase in the tax rate from 2.01 to anywhere between 2.30 an'd 2.50. And no maJtter what the tax rate hap¬ pens to be next year, it wil! most probably be higher in each succeeding year for some years to come. The current budget was cut mercilessly, so mercilessly as probably to interfere ■with the administrative work of the government. On thiS' ground alone, therefore, we may look for a substantial Increase next year. Eesidtes, the cost for the maintenance of streets in the new boroughs will grow as' the hundreds of miles of dirt roads are improved, and the demand for education and police and fire protection grows with the population. In another column are given the assessed valuations of the several boroughs aud other data, on which these calculations are based. A MORNING contemporary calls attention to tihe fact that there are four whole blocks of land for sale, within an area of three square blocks, bounded by 52d and 49th streets and Bth and Lexington avenues, and therefore located In one of tha most aristocratic sections of the city. These blocks contain witnm them St. Patrick's Cathedral, the Buckingham Hotel- and the Viliard mansions as reipresentatives of permanent improve¬ ments. The four blocks referred to aa in the market, are ths