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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 79, no. 2029: February 2, 1907

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February 2, I907 BECORD AND GUIDE 265 ESTABLISHED ^ M,RR.C H 21^ 186 8. DEV&TEDpRE^LEsTWE.guiLDlKo %cKlTE(rTURE,HobSniOLDDEGCff^71C:I. Busif/EssAtJoThemes OF GEtJERhl Ii^terest. PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLAR.S Published eVery Saturdai) Communications should be address od lo C. W. SW/EET Downtown Office: 14-16 Vesey Street, New York Telopboiie, Cortlandt 3157 Uptown Of flee: 11-13 East 24th Street, New York Telephone, 4430 Madison Sijuaro '■ Eidere.d at the Post Office at Neiu Tork. X. Y., as second-class mailer." Vol. LXXIX. FEBRUARY 2, 1907. No. 2029, INDEX TO DEPARTMENTS, Advertising Section. Page Page Cement .....................xvll Lumber ......................x.xii Consulting Engineers .........viil Machinery .....................ix Clay Products ..................j Metal Work ..................xvl Contractors and Builders......iv Quick Job Directory........xxlil Electrical Interests ...........vl Real Estate ..................xi FireprooQng ..................ti Roofers & Roofing Materials.. .xx Granite ....................xviil Stone.....................xvili Iron and Steel..................xv Wood Products ...............xxii TO say that Wall Street has been in a state of gloom this week fails to describe the despair and blackness of that precinct. People have looked at each other aghast as prices crunihled away undeterred by bnllish facts mountains high. Of course there will be a violent upturn some day. Holders of securities wil! not indefinitely continue to allow a state of mind to take the place of their reasoning powers tor they must know that all securities are selling very much below their value. Mr. Jacob H. Schift, of Kuhn, Loeb & Co., New York, lias been talking about these anomalous con¬ ditions in Wall Street to the Paris correspondent of a New York paper. The banker thinks that our prosperity is too great and that we are suffering from an excess of prosperity, which is. simply overwhelming us. He says "our industries cannot flnd labor with which to master the orders pouring in upon tliem; our railroads are in need of equipment and additional facilities Lo handle the immense business of the country and the banks can only furnish part of the working capital with which to do the unprecedented commerce which has developed." He further points out that the great cor¬ porations find themselves in need of large amounts of capi¬ tal to provide the facilities which the business of the conn- try demands, consequently a scramble for corporate funds has arisen, which to some extent is frightening money lend¬ ers probably to a greater degree in Europe than at home. Mr. Schiff summarizes the situation by asserting that it is neither unhealthy nor serious and that public opinion, the great corrector in the United States of all evil, has already asserted itself and is having its proper effect upon all cor¬ porate management. Yet the result of the fear referred to may tend, after a while, to diminish the demand for material and labor aud a falling off in business will follow. When this occurs, even to a moderate extent, money is certain to become superabundant and investors will again compete one with another for the replacement of their funds. It will not be amiss for operators to take the remarkable ut¬ terances of Mr. Schiff to heart. All revulsion in trade and real estate naturally hegins at the apex of conditions. We already see that improved real estate values represented by certificates of stock dealt in on the New York Stock Ex¬ change have been almost cut in two in market value by plethoric prosperity and might not the same thing happen to values dealt in outside of the Exchange. WITH all the dulness that has marked the week in real estate, we find brokers busy with negotiations and contending with a market in which buyers are plentiful, but bargains few. Sales have been fewer in number than usual, and none of first importance. Perhaps the transaction of most significance was the sale at the Vesey st auction room of the northwest corner of Gth av and 27th st at a figure so large as to indicate a remarkable recent enhancement of values in that part of tbe avenue lying between 23d and 34th sts. Reasons will array themselves together in any¬ one's judgment to vindicate this new quotation, and to force the prediction that this sale may be the beginning of a movement of extreme importance within that area. It would be strange indeed if the tunnel line to the Jersey shore now under construction through this thoroughfare to a terminal at 33d st should leave the several blocks inter¬ vening between the two great retail shopping centers of the city in their present mediocre estate. Rather is it now to he expected that the Gth av shopping district will be eventually' extended to that other center of trade which, beginning at Broadway, is extending through 3 4th st to Sth av aud theuce northward. As matters are at present brokers and builders might with advantage to themselves once more make a comprehensive study of Manhattan conditions. There are various districts, some, quite new, which have claims to consideration. For instance, the Lower West Side, and now the Middle West Side, as'well as the Sth av section. Which of all the husiness sections that might be named in this catalogue offer the best opportunities, and what are those opportunities? What forms are the demands of Prog¬ ress likely to assume, and to what extent is the future of this or that quarter of the borough involved in the tangled problem of traction? So far as the lower half of Manhat¬ tan is interested, it is time to banish fears of any further reaction from present conditious, though for other boroughs there may have existed "abnormal" conditions. To-day as yesterday and the times before a long series of facts and circumstances guarantee the permanence of Manhattan values. But speaking for the city as a whole, the public at the present time may be considered as out of the market. There are plenty desirous of buying, but their conditions and limitations cannot be met. Brokers' books are filled with the names of inquirers, but are bare of real bargains. Mort¬ gage money is still au obstacle, but as such seems to be gradually dissolving. Signs are multiplying that New Jersey real estate will be the subject of much attention from Man¬ hattan speculators very soon, and a number of downtown brokers have recently bought in there. THERE should most assuredly be passed at the current session of the Legislature a bJU permitting the own¬ ers of mortgages recorded prior to July 1st, 1906, to take advantage of the mortgage recording tax. At the present time this cannot be done except by means of a wholly new mortgage with all its attendant expenses; and the effect of this limitation is to discriminate in favor of some mort¬ gagors and mortgagees aud against others. In certain cases, that is, the attendant expenses would, owing to favor¬ able conditions, he small, and benefit can be taken of the exemption from the property tax which follows upon the payment of the recording tax. In other cases, owing to accidental conditions, they would be large and the liability continued. There is no reason for such a discrimination. The passage of the recording tax bill was an admission that the property tax as applied to mortgages was an unjust tax; and the injustice should not be allowed to press any more heavily upon ttie owners of existing mortgages than it does upon future lenders of money on real estate. Any loss in revenue, which the towns and cities might suffer therefrom, would be more than made up by the increased returns from the recording tax. That tax is accomplishing all the results claimed for it by its advocates. It has proved to be an ef¬ fective producer of revenue, and while, owing to an extreme scarcity of loanable capital there has been no reduction of interest charges as yet; such a reduction is bound eventually to come. The last vestige of the old unjust property tax on mortgages should be swept away; and all holders of this class of security placed on the same footing before the tax laws of the State. J T is evident that Fifth Avenue, south of Eourteenth J. Street, and the adjacent side streets, will bear watching in the near future. Hitherto that part of Fifth Avenue has escaped for the most part the business invasion which has transformed the avenue between Fourteenth and Forty* eighth Streets. It has retained ou the whole its quiet, pleasant residential character, and the only improvements in the vicinity have been apartment houses and hotels. But recently there have been purchases both on the avenue and ■ in the side streets, which apparently have been determined by a purpose to erect husiness buildiugs; and it remains to be seen whether this neighborhood can maintain its exis¬ ting i-esidential character. The Record and Guide sincerely hopes that its existing character can be maintained, because the few blocks to the north of Washington Square retain more of the flavor of old New York than any other part of Manhattan. Such neighborhoods add immensely to the gen-