Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 73, no. 1874: February 13, 1904

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l''ebrnary 13, 1904. RECORD AND GUIDE 325 lli^lis TO RfA^ Estate . euiLoijfc ApCJ^nECTUi^ ,h{ousErioiD Buao^s Alio Themes of GeiJzi;^. iKiEi^'Id PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE SIX DOLLARS Tublishud every Saturday Communications should bo addressed to C. W. SWEET. 14-16 Vesey Street. New YorH %. I. LINDSEY, Business Manager Telephone, Cortlandt 8157 ^SMtered at the Post Office at New York, JY. T.. as second-class maUer." Vol. LXXIII. FEBRUARY 13, 1904. The Index to Volume LXA'T of the Record and Guide, covering the period between July 1, (uid Dcc.vmhcr 31, 1903, ig now ready for dcHvery. Price, ^1. Thin Judex in its enlarged form is now ■reeognised as indispensable to every one engaged or inierestedin real estate and building operatioun. It covers all transactions— deeds, mortgages, leases, auction sales, building plans filed, etc. Orders for ihe Index should be sent at once to ihe office of publi¬ cation, 14 and 16 Vesey St. ALL that can be said of the stock market during the -week is that it has sustained a good dealof bad ne-ws with fortitude. The Baltimore fire, a serious foreign -war. declining railway earn¬ ings, and the continued borrowing on the part of railways, were all calculated to have a depressing effect, and did so to a certain extent; hut. on the whole, prices held pretty -well. There can be no doubt that the money situation continues to dominate the market, and whatever they may be for other people, these are good times for money lenders. When big railway corporations can be made to pay five per cent, for their money, it is obvious that the times are not propitious for an advance in the prices even of investment securities. It is much better, however, that railroads like the Pennsylvania should continue their improvements, even at tlie cost of keeping prices in the stock market low, than that all such improvements should be discontinued. The effect of sucli a discontinuance would be to produce a period not merely of normal business, but of acute depression. The best promise for tlie current and the coming year consists in tbe fact that these vast works are still underway and that they will carry over the last period to the next period of business activity. THE real estate and building market in this city gives the impression of a very powerful force which is being held in check temporarily by a still more po'werful force. The still more powerful force which is holding it iu check is the condition of the money market, which remains decidedly unpropitious, and what is worse, there is apparently small chance of really easier money conditions during the coming spring. The international market will be unfavorably affected by the war in the Far East, while the domestic money market will have as much as it can do in keeping the municipal and railroad corporations supplied witti cash for improvements, in making up for the loss in Baltimore, and In paying for the Panama Canal. All of the money raised for these purposes except that paid to France will stimulate business; but it will produce a constant strain upon the lending capacity of the people and companies tliat are concerned largely with real estate. The one thing that might ease matters very considerably would be the passage of the mortgage tax exemption bill, which would help to increase the popularity of real estate as security for loans. But in any case the money situation will impede both real estate and building operations. They will be carried on chiefiy by people who have exceptionaly good security to offer. It is fortunately true, how¬ ever, that a good many builders will have exceptionally good security to offer. The new building plans which are coming out at the present time are of a very high quality, and indicate a continuation of the excellent damand of former years for new locations by important business houses. Such is the char¬ acter of the lease of a 5th avenue lot hy Ovington Bros, for the purpose of erecting on it a new ten-story building; such is the new office building for the Produce Exchange Bank, on lower Broadway, and the new factory for a prominent milling com¬ pany. On 5th avenue the pressure for available business loca¬ tions is such that some part of the block between 47th and 48th streets which Columbia is now offering for sale wiii he turned into business properties, unless the present owners of the houses should combine to prevent it. The demand for resi¬ dences conrtinues to be hetter than it ■was a month ago, and it should be still better this spring. So far as the cheaper grade of dwellings is concerned, the plain facts are that almost none of them have been erected for four years, and none will be erected until a year from the coming spring. It seems incredible under such circumstances that the demand for existing dwell¬ ings 'of moderate price will not be sufficient to force up the price of them somewhat, for a certain number of people will continue to wish to live in that kind of a habitation. As for property available for improvements with tenement houses, the sale of the Morgan Iron Works shows how easily that is ab¬ sorbed. The prices obtained at Mr. Golding's sale of lower West Side property were not so good as the prices obtained at the sale of the East Side lots hy Mr. Ingraham; but they fairly rep¬ resented values prevailing in that neighborhood. In fact, the success of the auction sales held during the week will encourage further offerings under similar conditions. "D ALTIMORB is the third large American city which within ■^"-' the space of a little over a generation has been partly destroyed by flre; and since, at least, in the 19th century, such fearfully destructive confiagrations have not occurred abroad, this fact constitutes a significant comment upon the standard of American house construction. The difference between our own country and European countries in this respect is not due to any lack of efficiency in the fire departments of our Ameri¬ can cities, which are probably the best organized and equipped In the world. It is undoubtedly due to the fact that we Ameri-- cans constructed most of our buildings, as we construct our other machinery, for comparatively short service, and that a large group of houses built according to such methods is al¬ ways peculiarly liable to go up in one big blaze. There was a time when such methods were economical; but as Baltimore is learning to its cost, such does not always continue to be the case. The difficulty always is in our American cities to raise the standard of construction commensurate with the growth of the city and the general fire risk involved. This is the fact which should be borne in mind when any proposal is made to improve the standard of construction. Such attempts are bitterly opposed by people who can make more money tem¬ porarily by building cheap structures; but even at the cost of delaying certain improvements, the higher standard should pre¬ vail, because the general public interests endangered are much more important than the particular private Interests. A cheaply built three-story residence may, for instance, be safely built, so far as the protection of the life of its inmates against a fire originating in that buildiug is concerned, and yet such a building may nevertheless constitute a serious danger to ad- joining"buildings of a much more expensive character. What is needed, consequently, is a standard of construction which varies less among particular classes of buildings than the stand¬ ard which prevails at present, so that a fireproofed building will be protected, not merely against fires originating within a structure, but also against fires originating in neighboring buildings. T N Baltimore there were a number of tall buildings constructed .according to good if not the best methods of fireproofing. The precise condition in which the fire has left these buildings is yet to be determined; but it is apparent that, however well they were built, they were exposed to serious flre risks as long as they stood in a district which was covered chiefiy with ex¬ tremely infiammable structures. It is not sufficient, conse¬ quently, merely to insist that structures (Tver a certain height should be thoroughly well and safely constructed. A certain standard should be established which should apply to all build¬ ings within a definite area, and while regulations of this char¬ acter cannot be made retroactive, they can with the help of the flre insurance scale bs made extremely effective. At the present time the difference between the premiums paid upon a safe building and the premiums paid upon an infiammable one is only a small fraction of the difference between the cost in interest of the two methods of construction, the result being that it is frequently cheaper to build badly and insure to the limit, than build well and insure reasonably. The whole sub¬ ject of premium increase in relation to the infiammability of buildings requires readjustment parlicularly with a view to re¬ ducing the risk which fireproofed buildings suffer from non- firepi'oofed neighbors. The decrease in insurance cost, for in¬ stance, that an owner obtains from the use of wire glass and metal sashes and frames instead of wooden sashes and frames and plain glass is so small that it is not worth considering, yet one affords complete protection against "exposure" fires aud the other none at all. It should be added that the question of legally restricting the height of buildnigs is also involved in