Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 76, no. 1961: October 14, 1905

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RECORD AISTD GUIDE 0#S ESTABL1SHEQ^MRRPH21V>1868. "DtAtS) to REX.L Estate.Boildij/o AflcrfiTEeTURE.KouseHoidDEGffltfTKSt: B JsiiJESs A^JD Themes of GEfto^L IHt^esi.^ PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS Published eVerg Saturdag Communlcatlona sbould oe addreBBel to C. W. SWEET. 14-16 Vesey Street, New York Telephone, Cortlaadt 3157 "Entered at the Post 0.flce at New York. N. Y.. o9 second-class mailer." Copyrtght by the Real Estate Raeord and Bnllders' Guide Company. Voi. LXXVI. OCTOBER 14, 1905. No. 1961. Page CPtnent ....................''^v Clay Products .............xxiv Contractors and Builders----vit Pireproofing .................ii Grnnite ...................xviii Heatinc; ...................xxii Iron and Steel................xx INDEIX TO DEPARTMENTS. Advertising Section. Page Law .........................ix Machinery....................v Metal Work .................sxi Stone .....................xviil Quick Job Directory.......xxvii Rea! Estate .................xii Wood Products ............xxvi THE speculative situation in Wall street continues essen¬ tially unchanged, and may be fairly summed up somewhat in the following terms: The majority of professional operators realize that conditions are not favorable at present for any con¬ siderable or sustained advance in prices; but they are convinced that such an advance will take place, at least in certain stocks, some time during the coming winter. The consequence is that in spite of dear money and the admitted opposition of strong banking interests they prefer rather to buy stoclts than sell them. Their purchanes do not serve to advance prices very much except in certain specialties; but they frequently give a feverish and somewhat uncertain air to the market. It would be distinctly better that for the next six weeks the market should be dull and a little weak, because when the money strin¬ gency is over a buying movement might start on a somewhat lower level which would carry stoclis to a higher one than they have yet reached. It is improbable, however, either that prices will sag very much in the near future or that they will advance. They will not sag, because a good demand for stocks soon de¬ velops on a slightly lower level, aod they will not advance for the present, because the bankers recognize the danger of en¬ couraging speculation under existing conditions, Mr. Frank Vanderlip, iu emphasizing this danger, was only repeating what all conservative financiers have been saying during the past two mi^nths. The market is likely to remain irregular, uncertain and somewhat treacherous until loanable capital re¬ turns in large quantities to New Yorh. Then there should be room for a higher level of prices for certain selected securi¬ ties, chiefly industrial. A WELL-DISTRIBUTED activity in certain restidcted classes of property remains the dominant characteristic of the real estate market. There is a large amount of ordinary speculative and investment business consummated every week. Tenements which are being completed flnd a ready sale, and there is a constant demand for lots situated in the active dis¬ tricts which are intended for immediate improvement. All this, however, is an old, although a good, story; and the question is whether the market will continue indeflnitely to preserve this routine character, or whether an outburst of speculative interest in some new district'will soon develop. On the whole, it loolts as if the routine would remain undisturbed for some months to come. The operators and speculators indulged in an orgy of trading in accessible vacant land last year; and they will have to postpone further exploits of a similar kind until the level of prices so established has been justified by the results of build¬ ing operations. It may well be, however, that greater activity will soon develop in the Dyckman tract. In a short while the Subway will be in operation all the way to Kingsbridge; and the whole Inwood seetion_will become more accessible than are large areas of the Bronx, in which a great deal of building is under way. The level of prices in this section is not yet too high; and there Is room for further speculative advance in anticipation of the beginning of building operations. In busi¬ ness property of all kinds very little Interest is being shown; and this interest is.being confined to the section north of 23d street, between Fourth and Seyeath,avenues, - The area so de¬ scribed will be the scene of a good deal of activity during the current season. The wholesale district south of 23d street does not contain much more room for new buildings; and when the six or seven Fifth avenue corners now under improvement in that vicinity are supplied with their new equipment, the build¬ ers of big lofts will have to seek new opportunities north of 23d street. Inasmuch as they are excluded from Fiflh avenue because-of high prices, and as there are only a few available sites on Broadway, the question as to which avenue will be chosen for thi? exploitation is interesting and important. It looks to the Record and Guide as if both Madison and Sixth avenues south of 32d street might become thoroughfares avail¬ able for large loft buildings. Operators who erect these struc¬ tures like to keep as near as possible to the retail trade, and also along the most central avenues, which they can afford; and Madison and Sixth avenues conform to these requirements. 1904. 1,188 13 1,153 131 THE expectation that the tax on mortgages imposed hy tha Legislature at its last session would tend to increase the amount of money offered for investment in mortgages and so reduce the rate of interest until the tax was paid by the lender, has up to date been completely lalsified by the event. The mortgage records show plainly that the tax is being almost universally paid by the borrower, and that one^half of one per cent, has been added to the rate which he would otherwise have been obliged to pay for his loan. The following table shows the number of mortgages recorded during ths past three weeks on property situated in Manhattan, the Bronx and Brooklyn compared to the flgures for the corresponding week last year: 1905. Mortgages at 6 per cent............ 1,634 At 5'A per cent................... 435 At 5 per cent...................... -^^^ At 414 per cent.................... 31 Such figures as these cannot be misread. Although there were fewer mortgages recorded during the three weeks of 1905 than there were during the three weeks of 1904, the decrease took place entirely in mortgages which carried interest at the rate of flve per cent or less. The number of mortgages car¬ rying iuterest at six per cent increased frora 1,188 to 1,634. The number of mortgages carrying interest at 5'A per cent, increased from 13 to 435, which amounts to a demonstration that the money which a year ago would have been loaned at 5 per cent, has been loaned at 51/2 per cent, except when the lenders could obtain six per cent. On the other hand, the 1,153 five per cetit. mortgages which were recorded last year have in 1905 shrunk merely to 259, while the 131 four and one-half per cent, mort¬ gages have diminished to 31. As to four per cent loans, there are practically none of them being recorded at present. Thus every borrower is either paying an additional one-half of one per cent, for his money, or else he, is paying more than that; and the increased annual charge which this is will be not far from $2,500,000 each year. This money can be paid without any tremendous strain at the present time, because buildings of all kin-ds are well rented and building operations profitable; but it is an outrage that this additional charge should be laid upon the people who already pay the bulk of the local and state taxes. The success of the new organization of property owners, the Allied Real Estate Interests, in securing a large membership, is a sufficient evidence that the sufferers from this tax are fully alive to its gross injustice; and the course of the market for mortgages on real estate during-the next few months will sup¬ ply them with an abundance cf'facts, which can be used w-ith telling- efEect during the next session of the Legislature. THE municipal campaign which will occupy the next few weeks promises to be much more interesting than seemed probable a short time ago. The Republicans have obtained in tneir nominee for Mayor a candidate who is fully capable of making an energetic and effective canvass; and while Mr. Ivins has practically no chance of being elected, he w.iU be able and willing to put up a fight which will do Tammany a great deal of harm. The administration of Mayor McCIellan is hy no means so impeccable as many of his supporters appear to imagine; and his opponent will have an abundance of ammunition with which to make his speeches explosive and dangerous. More¬ over, the action of Tammany in nominating a separate candi¬ date for District Attorney will afford Mr. Ivins the strong sup¬ port of Mr. Jerome, We believe that the Tammany leaders were unwise from their own point of view in not endorsing Mr. Jerome. It was to the interest of that organization to pro¬ voke as little opposition as possible during the campaign this fall. But it is a good thing for the city of New York that Mr, Jerome should be forced to take the stump. He may well be beaten; but it is better that he should be beaten after a good fight than that the non-partisan reform ideal should be wliolly