Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 59, no. 1506: January 23, 1897

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January 23, 1897. Record and Guide 121 mi. ESTABUSHED-^HABpHSl«>1868. Dd6ieD to RaL Eetaje , BuiLDiffe ftp,a(iTECTui^£ .pfobsnfoiD DEecaifnoA Busii/ess AftiTHEHES Of CejJer^I Ij^teresl. RICE, PER YEAR, IN ADVANCF, SIX DOLLARS. Pubtislicd every Saturday. TBLBPHONE, ._-... CORTLANDT 1370 Communications should he addressed to C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Street J T. LIXDSEF, Business Manager. 'Entered al the Post-office al New Tork, A''. T., as second-class mailer." Vol. LIX. JANUARY 23, 1897. No. 1,506 WARNING. We arc informed thai certain iiidlmduals arc going about repre¬ senting that the Eecokd and Guide intends to issue some sort of a railwai/ guide or cover to be placed in hotels, steamships and. elsewhere. Some persons hare been induced through the u.se of the vaiiie of the Eecord axi» Glmde, not only lo spend nionei/ irith these parties and pay in adrance for iheir order bat iu settle for old accounts with thcnt. Wc warn ihc public that the Uecord .\si> Guide is in no way ichafsocver conneeted with this project, and that no accounts should be paid, except to our regular collectors. I'or mutual protection, our friends should immediately telephone ■us, No. 1370 Cortlandt, when approached by the swindlers. THERE is apparent ;i good deal of suvpiise that ivitli iiioucy as ehtap as it is, the Stock market is not more active. This comes from a tendency to mix up cause and effect. Money is cheai) because the market is inactive and because the coui- luercial demand is limited. There must be something beside cheap money to raise values. For iustauce, securities were bought extensively on tlic fact that our foi'eign trade showeti a groat balance in our favor, but so soon as the buying iuduced by this important fact wa.s exhausted, the marlcet bectui^e dull again, tliough money is cheaper than ever. Prices will drag now until another .stiiking jjiece of evidence turns up to show that the condition of tbe country commercially and fiuaucially is steadily improving, ootwithstautl ing some unfavorable features. Kaiiroati earniogs in tlie middle and northwestern states aie bad as they always are in open wintei's, wheu the condition of the roads makes draughting well-nigh impossible and the carriers are starved because freight cannot reach them. Poor business generally brings rale cutting also, and it would not be surprising if the reports of disagreements among the railroads iu the west turn out to be true. The coudiliou of the sol't coal trade is also a matter ot anxiely aud has raised a good deal of adverse talk and denial in regard to some of the i ail- roads dependent upon this inUtilry. Our advice to anyone in doubt as to whether to believe the reports of impending difii- culties or the oflieial denials, would be to accept the one that is supported bi'st by the quotations for the securities affected. These are tbe bad features ot the situatiou. The good ones we have pointed out before, and have only to add that they are still potent. ■•^HE reduction iu the Hank of England's discount rate from -A- 4 to 31-2 per cent, is an indication of a belief iu the minds of tbe managers ot that institution that money will be plentiful for some time to come. The demand for funds for the .spring agricultural operations will soon commence, and with this fact in view no reduction would have been made unless it was ap¬ parent that this demand could be met without dittieulty and without trenching upon other requirements. This ease of money is due, in great part both in London and on the Conti¬ nent, to the dullness iu boiiise operations. So far there is nolhing to indicate that there will be a revival of activity in this direction. There are no great operations ou Cie carpet to create an incentive, such as the issue of new g . I'ernmeut loans, etc., aud negotiators aud brokers mugt be content to sit through a period of unavoidable dullness withwhiU patience they can. A luoveinent in Aniericaus will come at .= rmie period, but it will apparently ouly date from the time wttn currency reform iu the United States is assured and a recurrence of l;he anxieties of last year made reasonably impossible. Meantime Europe indicates its intention of doing uo more thau to follow the New York market, buying when it buys and laying down when it is tired. ----------■---------- ■p3 liOOKLYN has many admirable qualitie.s, but it cannot be *-^ said that modesty i,s one of them; certainly not frora the position taken by the press of that city in the matter of consoli¬ dation. The BrooVlyn Eagle figured the other day that union with New York City meant a saviuii ot 89.7 cents perfplOOin taxation to Brooklyn pi'operty, and coolly intimated that that was whatBrooklyn consolidationists are after. The correctness of the calculation is unipiestiooable, only the extent of the in¬ tended steal is not fully etated. The Evening 3i*ost])o\ni(iA out last Saturday that, with consolidation aud equalization of valu¬ ation and taxation, Hrooklyn would be relieved ot: responsibil¬ ity for over gi30,000,000 of its present debt, and that that amount would be added to this city's indebtedness. This is also quite correct. To these extra burdens there can be addcil the increased cost of running the consolidated city on the basis of expendituie, brought up to our standard, through the whole of (greater New York and the cost of the irai)rovements which will be demanded in outlying aud remote sections as well as iu the near aud populous ones. What all these mean it is not pos¬ sible to express in figiires to-day, but it is easy to see that they mean a large increase to the tax burdens of New York Uity realty. Ou the basis of the estimates for 1897 for the two great parties to consolidation alone, it meaus an increase of 30 cents per $100 on all New York City real property, or a writing down of values of $000 per $10,000. With increased budgets and large schemes of improvemenls, the tax obligation will be very much more and the consequent loss of value increased in pro¬ portion. I'he proposition cmbodii'd in the charter, which is being now sandpapered for delivery to Ihe Legislature, relating to equalization of assessments and taxation amounts to nothing more nor less than taking so much from New York Cily and giving it to Brooklyn, or dividing it up among Brooklyu, Stateu Lsland and the portion of Queens County which is within tlie territorial limitations of the Greater New Yoi'k. This being so, would not any and eveiy properly owner in the city to be looted have a right to resist the enfon^ement ol! the Act of Consolida- dation on well-known constitutional grounds'? AT the public hearing given by the Conmiittee ou Draft last week ou (. liaptei XVII, Taxes and Assessiuents, much stress was hiid, by Brooklyu members of the Commission, ou the necessity for ecjualization of valuation iu order to ]n'opeily apportion t!ie State Tax. It was asked whether it would be fair that the Bi'ooklyn portion of Greater NiwYorkshould pay upon a valuation of 70 or 80 per cent, and the New York poition on a valuation of 50 oi' 60 per cent.? Ou the face of it it appears tlrat this would be a manifest injustice to the Brooklyn i>.H-lion. But it ought to be staled in the first place, that Biouklyu has hitherto made its own valuatiuu, and if this is f-ii per cent, of actual value, it is because previous extravagance iu;ule such a valuation necessary in order to save the credit of tlu^ city— which by the way it is now sought to save by (consolidation, he- cause the city is at the end of its resources and cannot borrow money for needed improvements. In ihe next place it does not follow that it a L)sl ract .justice requires that the State Tax should be paid upou actual \'alues throughout the state, it does not I'eqiiire that the valuation uf New York Ciiy shall be raised in order lo contribute to the cost of tbe nniiuteniince ol' iirooklyn and the other partnei's which ai'e to be forced upon it iu cou- solidation, or to relieve them from the duty of meeting their interest when due en their several debts at niatui'ily. The trouble is that. Brooklyn is drafting Ihe charter and New York Cily has little or nothing to do with its making. Otherwi.se such a |.)iece of robbery would not be coutetnplated. If n