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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 76, no. 1965: November 11, 1905

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November ii, 1905 RECORD AND GUIDE Dp6TiI>pRE\LEsTAjE.BniLDT?(G ^RcKrTEeTURp.HoiiSEUaDDEeat(JTBit, Btrsir/Ess Aft)Themes of Cuita^l Wtoifst.; PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS Published eVerp Saturdag Communications should db addresBOd to C. W. SWEET. 14-16 Vesey Street, New York Telephone, Cortlandt 3157 "Entered at tha Post Office al New York, N. Y.. ffls second-class mailer." Copyright by tha RbhI Estate Record and Bnllders' Guide Company, the conditions w'oich have prevailed during the current year have been absohitely unprecedented, and have severely strained the resources of the machinery of every individual and com¬ pany which has to handle legal papers representing real estate transactions. Since Jan. 1, 1905, some 29,855 deeds have been recorded at the county offices, against only 19,887 for the cor- respondipg period in 1904, and during the same period the num¬ ber of martgages: recorded increased from 17,439 to 2S,804. There has been an enlargement consequently of almost 60 per cent, in the amount of work to be achieved in recording and indexing these papers, and the Register has not received from the Board of Estimate either as much room or as much money as he needs in order to handle this enormous increase of busi¬ ness promptly. One of the first and most necessary works con¬ fronting the new administration will he that of restoring the Register's oflice to the state of efficiency which characterized it during the early part of Mr. Ronner's term of ofiice. Vol. L,XXVI. NOVEMBER 11, 1005. No. 1965. INDEIX TO DEPARTMENTS, Advertising Section. Pag;e. Cement ..................xxui Clay Products .............xxii Contractors and Builders----vi Electrical Contractors .....viii Flreproofing .................ii Granite ..................xxiv Heating ....................xx Iron and Steel.............xviii Page. Law .........................X Machinery ..................v Metal Work ...............xix Stone .:...................XXiV Quick Job Directory.......xxvi Real Estate .................xii Wood Products ............xxv THERE is no cause for alaroj about the reaction" on the stock market which has been taking place during the past week. When rates for call money become as high as 15 per cent, it would be an unwholesome sign unless a reaction did occur; and it is Just such a set-back which affords a good opportunity for people who can afford it to 'buy stocks. It is said that certain conservative interests have been buying stead¬ ily ihut quietly on the decline; and the course of prices indi¬ cates the existence ol such underlying support. It looks as if the next few weeks would afford many opportunities to pick up stocks at prices which will assuredly yield good profits some time during the winter. Nothing has happened to affect the prevailing -conviction jthat busiiuess will conitinue excellent 'Oiroughout the first half of 1903 INTEREST has been shifted during the past week from im¬ proved to unimproved rea! estate. The first of several im¬ portant sales of Bronx property was held at the auction room, and was attended with considerable success. The prices for tte parcels on Jerome av did not come up to anticipations; .but those on the less important adjoining avenues and streets were all that could be expected and more. The sellers are said to have reaped a profit of about $75,000 in less than a year from their purchase^which indicates that the subsidence of actual speculation in Bronx vacant land has not been at¬ tended by any shrinkage of values. The great strength of Bronx real estate consists in the fact that it is to such a lar^e extent t)oiight and held by small local investors. In iMan- hattan operations in real estate have passed into the hands largely of professionals, and such operations require generally a very considerable amount cf capital. But in the Bronx, par¬ ticularly in the relatively unimproved sections thereof, every man with a little money takes an interest in real estate, and wants to reap his share of the profit which will result from the rapid growth of the borough. These are the people who buy freely and confidently at the auction sales; and many of them are in a very much better position to wait a number of years for their profits than are the professional operators in Manhattan. The -way in which they flocked to the Bruner sale is an excellent augury for the success cf the other sales which are to follow. Neither js it Bronx property alone which is becoming more active. There are signs of increasing life both on Washington Heights and in the Dyckman tract. It is only a month or two now before the subway trains will be run¬ ning to Kingsbridge. and this event should be the signal for renewed speculation along the upper end of the route. There :is, we believe, more room for a further advance of prices in that region than iu any part of the city which has been opened for early improvement by the subway. T AWYERS and real estate operators are naturally very ^-^ mitch exercised over the wretched condition of business at the Register's office;, but it should be clearly understood that the Register and his assistants are uot responsible either for the de¬ lays attending the :returns of papers or the failure to maintain the Block Indes. .As everyone familiar with real estate knows IT is impossible to tell just at present what the effect of tho election will be upon the Mortgage Tax. The issue could not be raised decisively during a campaign which necessarily turned to so large an extent upon local questions. One result, however, is certain: ali the Assemblymen elected from New York City, whether Democrats or Republicans, are pledged to work for the repeal of the tax; and if they stand together on this matter, and present their demands vigorously, they may well be able to secure the action for which they are pledged. But even if the tax is not repealed at the coming session of the Legislature, the fight will not be abandoned. The real test will come at the State election next fall, and, if necessary, at that election the "Allied Real Estate Interests" will spread its work throughout the entire State. The records of each succeeding week show even more conclusively that the tax is paid and will continue to be paid by the person who borrows the money, and that consequently it is a tax chiefly upon those owners of real estate who cannot afford to carry it without a mortgage. Such owners will, of course, seek to reim^burse themselves, if possible, at the expense of their tenants; and in so far as they succeed the tax will be au actual benefit to the property- owners who can afford to carry their holdings without a mort¬ gage. For they will reap in the benefit of a higher level of rentals, even if they have not the same motive for demanding such an increased return. I I I NOW that the Board of Aldermen has been carried by the Hearst-Republican combination, the threat is fully made that the Legislature will restore to that body tbe power to grant franchises. It is scarcely possible, however, that Gover¬ nor Higgins would countenance such a flagrant misuse of legis¬ lative authority. The power to grant franchises was taken away from the Board of Aldermen and granted to the Board of Estimate, not because the Aldermen were Tammany men, but because they had ahused the power they had possessed. They had made it the excuse for holding up many desirarble franchises, and had shown unmistakably that their action was dictated not hy the city's interest, hut by subterranean political, personal, and possibly financial motives. The Aldermen repre¬ sented their districts, their party and their local leaders, and they neglected again and again the best interests of the city. The Board cf Estimate, on the other hand, is responsible either to the whole electorate of New York, or else to the electorate of on'3 entire borough, and their action takes place in the open and is determined by public motives. To deprive them of the franchise-granting power would be a partisan act of the most inexcusable character, and it would bring the people who could perpetrate it into s.till worse repute in New York than that which they enjoy at present. THE Record and Guide publishes herein a drawing of one of the facades of the new Chemical National Bank; and it will be seen from these drawings that the architects, Messrs. Trowbridge & Livingston, have prepared a design which ad¬ heres to the best prevailing tradition of bank architecture. The new Chemical N.'itional Bank will be a low building of Renaissance design, with a dome over tho main banking of¬ flce. The plot on which it is being erected faces 25 ft, on Broad¬ way, and connects with a mucli larger plot, 70x100, on Chambers St. The main banking office, with its dome, will consequently be situated on the Chambers st lot, and ■will be entered both from Broadway and from the side street. The building wiil for the most part consist of a sub-'basement, a basement and la main floor; hut on the rear of the Broadway lot a 4-sty building will be erected, which will contain the directors' room, the officers and the clerks' dining-rooms, and the janitor's ^