Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 29, no. 742: June 3, 1882

Text version:

Real Estate Record AND BUILDERS' GUIDE. Vol. XXIX. NEW TORK, SATURDAY, JUNE 3, 1882. No. 742 Published Weekly by The Real Estate Record Association TERMS: ONE TEAS, in advance.....$6.00 Communications should be addressed to C. W. SWEET. 191 Broadway. J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager. THE PROPOSED REAL ESTATE EX¬ CHANGE. The project for a Real Estate Exchange, first referred to in these columns, is naturally creating a good deal of discussion in real estate circles. As a matter of course the suggestion at first excited more or less criti¬ cism. Any interference with the usual order of business is regarded with disfavor by those whose interests are directly affected, but the more the matter is considered, deal¬ ers in realty will see that it is they who will profit as well as the public. All our other great material interests find exchanges not only useful but indispensable. Ten shares of stocks are sold to-day where one would be transferred were the business carried on in private offices and without the authority of a great organization to give contracts for the exchange of stocks, a guarantee they could not have in any other way. People \7ho have property to sell or those who wish to invest would have no hesitation in deal¬ ing through an exchange ; though now they are often deterred from doubts about the methods pursued by private firms. The value of an exchange is that it brings the business to a focus and so increases the num¬ ber of transactions, for all the buyers and all the sellers are brought together. Hence the business not only of the larger but of the smaller brokers would be very greatly increased. There is still another consideration. A Real Estate Exchange would keep a vigilant watch upon both our city and State govern¬ ments in all matters affecting realty. If the organization itself did not take action, the heavy dealers, being brought together daily, could easily combine not only to prevent the levy of wasteful taxes and assessments, but could correct many of the abuses which the existing laws sanction. A Real Estate Ex¬ change would naturally try to simplify and cheapen the transfers of real estate. It could correct abuses at the register's office and in a hundred ways relieve real estate of the burdens which now press upon it. Heretofore corrupt corporation rings have fattened upon the property of real estate owners. They have been assessed and plundered in every possible way, all because of a lack of a business organization to repre¬ sent them. Of course an exchange is simply a place where dealers will meet to buy and sell, but inevitably other results would fol¬ low from the organization of the brokers and dealers. One of the first things to be attended to would be the getting rid of the onerous exactions of the legal profession. The real ^tate interest iuthis city pays mil¬ lions of dollars to lawyers for every cent spent upon them by members of the regular Stock Exchange. The brokers in personal securities will have nothing to do with courts or lawyers. This of course would be impracticable in the real estate business, but a great deal could be done in the way of cutting down unnecessary expenses in the transfer of titles, and in other ways. It, has been suggested that a good site would be A. T. Stewart's Chambers street and Broadway building. It can be leased now ou very favorable terms, and would be a splendid investment for an interest which would at once fill up all the offices into which the building could be sub-divided. Still, as the real estate business now centres about Pine street, it would be easy to pro¬ cure accomnaodations in that neighborhood. When The Real Estate Record first sug¬ gested a Metal Exchange, the leading brokers who had a monopoly of the business of buying and selling were very much op¬ posed to it. The great iron, capper, tin and lead interests were then so manipulated as to discourage dealing-, and to put the operator at the mercy of a few leading houses. We, of course, do not claim that the two exchanges subsequently organized were called into existence by anything we said, but the business tendency of the day is in the direction of the organization of such exchanges as will give :the greatest liberty of choice and price to dealers on both sides of the market. The telegraph and the concentration of business in large cities necessitates organized . exchanges. The slow, costly and ineffective way of doing business, prevalent; twenty years ago, must give place to the njore efficient modern methods rendered necessary by the telegraph and telephone. It is safe to predict that two years after an efficient exchange has been instituted, tiie real estate business of this city will increase fourfold. Moneyed men are now often puzzled as to the course of prices on the Stock Exchange, and they employ their spare time^ and money in dabbling in cotton or grain. A Real Estate Exchange would be a very tempting field for such operators. They are a class who believe in quick turns, and hence brokers and commission houses would profit largely by them. We hope before the summer is over that some measures will be taken to organize a Real Estate Exchange. --------------«-•-»-------------- The bUl passed by the Legislature taxing the gross receipts of the. elevated roads in¬ stead of assessing them as real estate, is en¬ tirely just in principle. Our readers know that no publication has become more out¬ spoken than The Record in condemnation of the elevated stock manipulations of Jay Gould, Cyrus W. Field and their prfdecessors and associates. But we have also always held that the taxation of the elevated roads was excessive and indefensible in law and equity, and that its owners were quite right in protesting against the injustice. The pub¬ lic press have charged corruption in the pas_ sage of this act, and undoubtedly the general public are in favor of any burden that can be laid upon the shoulders of Gould and Field- But the law should not sanction even the just resentments of the community; it should deal with the merits of the case quite irrespective of the fact that the owners of the elevated roads are under the ban of public opinion. That the Mayor and Controller should make a fight for all the taxes they can raise, was to have been expected; but the simple fact is that the tax levied upon the elevated roads was monstrously unjust, and the State can. not afford to do wrong even to punish such objectionable people as the owners of the elevated roads. BUILDING IN 1881 AND 1883. The following analysis of the plans filed at the Building Department wiU prove in¬ teresting to all who own or deal in New York realty. It wUl beseen that for Janu¬ ary, February, March, Aptil and May of this year there were 586 plans, against 613 for the sapie Jfive months last year. -. The num^ ber of buildings is less by nearly 800, and the estimated cost is less by over $8,000,000. It will be noticed, however, that in the region below Fourteenth street, the number of buildings have increased, which remark is also true of the Twenty-third and Twenty- fourth Wards. 1881. 1883. No. plans ..................... 612 586 Total No. huildings.......___ 1,345 1,079 Estimated cost.... ........821,292,610 S17,T85.S70 No. south of 14th st............ 143 164 Cost...............,............... $5,327,770 $3,477,260 No. het 14th and 59th sts. ■..... '.311 201 Cost...................... $5,862,3:^5 $4,810,980 No. het 59th and 125th sts, west of Sthav....................' 62 40 Cost............................ $652,700 $1,015,300 No. bet 59th and 12oth sts, east of5thav.....................• 550 414 Cost.......;......... .......... $7,533,930 $6,114,175 Ko. het 110th and 125th sts, Sth # .' and Sth avs.................. ll 6 Cost............................ $97,500 $79,250 No. 23d and 24th Wards........ 85 ilT Cost......................... $320,725 $432,065 BROOKLYN. 1881. 1882. No. buildings projected during flve months ending May 31.. 767 8>6 Estimated cost................ $2,319,862 $3,870,145 TRANSACTIONS FALLING OFF. The comparisons of the conveyances dur¬ ing May with those of the preceding months of this year show a large faUing off. The transactions are fewer as compared with March and April, and the amounts in¬ volved smaller. Of course the month of June will show a stiH larger decrease. 23d & 1881. Cons. Am't. Nom. 24th W. Am't. nom Sept. 389 $4,937,744 103 59 $218,061 12 Oct. 619 8,634,824 169 75 aSl.SbO 23 Nov. 876 13,464,964 225 133 353,565 19 Dec. 719 14,459,915 226 72 190.010 10 1882 Jan". 785 13,970,643 190 102 260,735 22 Feb. 901 11,776,640 273 91 317,386 31 Mar. 1,191 20,422,338 294 119 376,293 88 Apr. 1,471 19,690.318 340 133 527.989 22 May 1,139 18,425,884 283 98 189.606 28 It is quite time the Hall of Records was condemned by the Grand Jury. It shows a strange apathy on the part of our city offi¬ cials as well as property holders that a new building was not erected long ago to pre¬ serve the records of the titles to all the real property in New York city. The proposal