Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 79, no. 2031: February 16, 1907

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February i6, 1907 RECORD AND GUIDE 355 ESTABLISHED ^ W^ARCH 21ii^ 186 8. Dev&teD JO Rea,L Estate.BulLOI^'o A;R.a(!TEeTi]RE,KousEHou)Di:coHAT!c:I. Bi/sit^Ess ai/dThemes of Ge^rrI It^TEiRpsi. PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS published every Saturday Coromnnicatlons should lie addresanil to C. W. SWEET Downtown Office; 1-4-16 Vesey Street, New York Tolephoue, Cortlandt 31.'J7 Uptown Office: 11-13 East 24th Street. New Yurk Teleplione, 4-130 Madison Square '■Entered at the J'o.sf Office al JVctc York, If. Y,, as second-class mailer." Vol. LXXIX. FEBRUARY 16, 1907. No. 2031. INDEX TO DEPARTMENTS. Advertlsins Section. Page Page Cement ......................xix Lumber ....................xxiv Consulting Engineers...........x Machinery ...................vi Clay Products ...............xviii Metal Work ................xvli Contractors aud Builders ......iv Quick Job Directory .........xxv Electrical Interests ..........viii Real Estate ...................xi Fireprooflng ...................ii Roofers & Roofing Materials.xxii Granite ....................xx Stone ......................xx Iron and Steel.................xvi Wood Products .............xxiv TOCKS this week have moved a little and that has heen in the way oC advance rather than retrogression. Prices are low and, measnred by actnal values, never lower. As has heen previously remarked in this paper, the persist¬ ent agitation against railroads is having its effect by pre¬ venting the construction of new ones. Not a dollar of money is likely to be found in the world to go into a new railroad enterprise while this present unreasoning attack on that form of investment continues. The result is obvious. Exisling railroad systems in their respective territories will become residuary legatees oi the country's growth, and must therefore consequently increase in value. Without wishing it and in spite of themselves, President Roosevelt and his imitatars are really bequeathing to the present lines of rail¬ roads a virtual monopoly by frightening capital. The Al¬ drich bill reported to the Senate this week will probably be passed because of the adroit manner in which it is intro¬ duced as an amendment to a House bill already passed. Its passage ought to be worth ten points to the stock market because it contains financial remedies which go to the very heart of the weakness of our currency system. Real estate and building interests have a vital concern in tlie sticcess of the bill, and already it appears that many persons are writing to their Congressmen and Senators to stiffen some invertebrate backbones. The spectacular feature of the mar¬ ket was the crossing of 200 by Anaconda, even going beyond its former highest record of Feb. 13, 1906. There are those who say that nothing can prevent the stock's mounting to a much loftier figure. There is also some evidence, accord¬ ing to brokers' reports, that Washington is beginning to buy stocks. When orders c6me froiii the national capital they are presumably based on knowledge of Congressmen and Senators as'to the course of legislation and consequently gladden the hearts of Wall Street men. What is known as the public has certainly made no sign as yet of coming into the market and no one is rash enough to predict when that ■'consummation devoutedly to be wished" will eventuate. Neither call nor time money has been a considerable factor in the market this week, whereat borrowers rejoice and say, "for this relief much thanks." THE diminution in the amount of activity in real estate, which the records of the current year show as com¬ pared to the records of the corresponding period last year, is very extraordinary. It is not confined to any one of the three larger boroughs, and it evidently due to general rather than to special causes. Thus, in Manhattan the number of transfers of real property recorded during the first flve weeks of the year amounted to only 1,602, against 3,616 for the corresponding period last year. This decrease amounts to about 35 per cent, and is more remarkable in its volume than the increases which the records exhibited last year and in 1905. In the Bronx the decrease in the number of con¬ veyances has been equal to 2 5 per cent., and in Brook¬ lyn a diminution in about the same ratio must be registered. When we turn to the building filings the proportion falling off of recorded activity is even larger. During the same period plans have been flled for only 7 5 new buildings to be erected in Manhattan at an estimated cost of ?4,381,000, whereas the totals for the corresponding period in 1906 were 229 new buildings and the estimated cost over $19,000,000. Thus the amount of money to be invested in projected Man-^ hattan buildings is scarcely one-fifth of what it was during the early part of 1906. In the Bronx this proportionate de¬ crease is much smaller, while in Brooklyn there has been in this item an actual and a substantial decrease. The two causes which have cocjperated to bring about this falling off iu activity are, of course, the money market and the dimin¬ ished speculation iu tenement houses and in fiats. It is true that ?5-l,000,000 has been loaned on Manhattan real estate during the first five weeks of this year, against only $32,000,000 during the corresponding period in 1906; but this increase is only apparent. Last year whenever real, property was transferred, existing mortgages were, if possi¬ ble, left untouched, so as to escape the mortgage tax, where¬ as, now existing mortgages are, if possible, recorded again so as to obtain the benefit of the mortgage recording tax. On the other hand the great part which the diminished spec¬ ulation in tenements has played towards the reduction in the number of transfers is shown by the figures published in the Record and Guide, exhibiting the comparative value of the property transferred in the two years. During the first five weeks of 1907, 109 conveyances were recorded for ex¬ pressed considerations and their aggregate price was $7,- 342,000. During the same period in 1906 the 1^8 parcels transferred under similar conditions brought only $5,341,- 000, Thus the average value of each parcel transferred in 1907 was $67,300, whereas the average value of each parcel transferred in 1906 was only $36,000, The same story Is told by the aggregate assessed valuations of the parcels transferred for nominal considerations. The average as¬ sessed valuation of each parcel so transferred during the flrst five weeks of 1907 was $47,000, against only $34,000 as a similar average during the corresponding period in 1906. It will be seen, consequently, that the smaller activ¬ ity at present is taking place in property much higher in grade than the greater activity of last year. THE purchase oC the old Everett House at Seventeenth Street and Union Square by a syndicate of operators for eventual improvement, has a double significance. It in¬ dicates that the old ill-equipped and poorly decorated hotels can no longer compete with the handsome modern buildings which are being erected np-town, and it indicates also, that the demand for mercantile buildings is likely to be as active to the east as it is to the west of Broadway. So far, in spite of the many new loft buildings that have been built north of Fourteenth Street and west of Broadway, the district north of Fourteenth Street and east of Broadway has been comparatively neglected. The east side of Union Square, in particular, has not received the attention it deserves, aud if the Court House is not erected on the site proposed by the Commission, there can be little doubt that in the course of time, the three blocks included in the site, will be covered with mercantile structures of tlie usual type. Sites ou Union Square would afford the best light and air attainable by tall buildings in New York City; and the same statement is substantially true of Fourth Avenue. This avenue is ex¬ ceptionally broad; and during the next few years will obtain, between Seventeenth and Thirty-second Streets, much more attention than it has obtained during the past few years. A good deal of speculative buying has taken place on Fourth Avenue uorth of Twenty-third Street, because it is believed that the New Haveu Railroad will eventually have a station on the site of the Metropolitan car barns, but even iu this casOj it does not look as if Fourth Avenue would be availa¬ ble for improvement with anything except loft buildings. The retail trade is likely to cling to locations farther west. The situation on Fourth Avenue on the east side is similar to that of Seventh Avenue on the west side. Both of these avenues are so central, and consequently so convenient, that they will necessarily be devoted in the course of time to much more important business purposes than those to which the avenues are now- devoted; but on the other hand it is the intermediate avenues like Fifth, Sixth, Broadw-ay and Madi¬ son which will be seleeted as sites for the kinds of business which depend most on popular support. As for Union Square, the days of its availability for retail purposes are over, aud the mercantile buildings which will be erected on the square and in its vicinity will be devoted to the whole-