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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 80, no. 2053: July 20, 1907

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RECORD AOT) GUIDE 123 DflÔTĩD p RfVLEsTAjE^BuiLOlifc A{^lTEeTUR,E.KcrtJS£iíoiDDE6aF!Anoií, Bl/SlÆSSAtfoTHEMESOFGEIÍERíiV lifrEi^si.. PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS Commimĩcations sliould be addressed to C. W. SWEET Publisfied EVerp Saturdap Ey THE BECORD AND GTJIDE CO. President. CLINTON W. SWEET Treasurer, F. W. DODGE Vice-Pres, & Genl. Mgr., H. W. DESMOND Secretary, F. T. MILLER Nos. XX to IS East 24tli Street, New York Cĩty (Telepboũe, Madíson Square, 4430 to 4433.) "EHl<;reã at the l'ost Office nt Ncio Yorli N. y.. ds sccmul -í'lllSS viatier." Copyrigbted, 1007, by The Record & Guide Co. Vol. LXXX JULY 20, 1907. No. 2053. INDEX TO DEPARTMENTS. Advertising Section. Page. Page. Ceraent .......................viii Lumlier ....................xx Consulting Engineers ...........v Machinery ....................vi Clay Producls ...............xviii Metal Work ...................xv Coutractors and Builders......iii Quick Job Directory............xx Electrical luteresls ...........vii Real Esiate ...................xi Fireprooftng ...................ii Roofers & Roofing Materials, .xix Granite ......................xvi Stone .......................xvi Iron and Steel ................x Wood Products ..............xxi THIS weeiĩ's stock iiiarket has been almost a duplioate of last, aiid in spite of several depressing infliiences tliere has been a inai'lcing of tíme índicating tUe sonnd basis oí business. The failure of a large commercial lirm naturally affected sentiment. The house was not inter- ested in stoeks, but speculators reasoned tliat they could get little aid from banks if the latter declined to aeconimo- date commercial concerns. Although fluctuations have been comparatively insignificant there is undoubtedly a gradual improvement in the inarket. As a writer on flnance says, "T'he things which directly and properly affect the stock líiarket have been so thoroughly discoimted that the bear party is compelĩed to look outside for argunients." That the market is in a good technical condition for hardening prices cannot he denied, though there may be niany ups and downs before the advance is established. On Wednesday of this week there was a slump at the close, there being a loss of 2 points in Steel Comnion, breaking to 36. It after- wards recovered somewhat, On the other hand the snpport accorded Union Pacifle was aggressive. Higher figures than 150 for this stock are freely talked of and whether there is aiiy manipulation or not in advanciiig the price it is un- doubtedly a good investment security even at S per eent. But this ís, after all, a purely mid-summer market and it is not easy always to find reasons for tlie action of the stock market. The publie is certainĩy not în the market and it ĩs not likely that it wil! be for some time to come, so long aS savjngs banks pay 4 per cent. and profttable employment can be found for funds in general business. War talk has subsided, and Japan is ready to guarantee a loan of ?20,- 000,000 to be fioated in London for the development of the Manchurian railway systeni. Money is lower this week, which is news always welcome to building interests and real estate operators, but iu these dog days there is little activ- ity and co.nsequently less demand. Call money has not ex- eeeded 4 per eent. and time money, six months, 6 per cent. Eates are much lower abroad, and why they should be so miich higher Iiere is a problem yet to be solved. DURING the past three years there has been a gradual decrease in the number of private residenees and apartment hotels erected in Manhattan, but during the first six raonths of 1907 the tendency towards such a decrease has culminated. Not a single apartment hotel has been projected so far during the current year; and it becomes a matter of some interest wĩiether' this type of residential building is onĩy suffering a temporary eelipse, or whether it will disappear as one of the popular cĩasses of residences in Manhattan. The truth would seem to be somewhere between these two opinions. There can be no doubt that during 1901, 1902 and 1903 the erection of apartment hotels was very much overdone and tliat there was no de- mand for this class of accommodation sufflcient to fill the 100 large residentia! hoteis erected during those years. There was so much over-building during the yeî-f Brooklyn.H. Y. tioned that the deinand for hotel accommodation*^ ^^^^" likely to overtake the supply for many years; buf'^''"""""'**''-^™' probable that eventuany there will be a moderate v. of hotel building. The position oE New York as the k^^^gni^g pg^k ness metropolis of the country, which is likely to beecn, Waltíut st; more rather than less important in its effects, wil! alwã'.'^^-_ „, bring to the city a large fioating population, who will re"á'^Í7;iu°^s''t inain there long enough to want something different from ' a room or two in a noisy Broadway hotel. Then regular '™*ii'-' residents of New York show an increasing preference for a country home near the city, the pleasures of which are -liinBĨe varied by !ife for a few months each yeai' în a Manhattan '^ ' apartment hotel. It is likely, however, that the eoijpera- 'st, tive apartment house, whieh is at the present time the most '"* popular type of large residential building, will compete with the apartment hotel for the eustom of this seeond elass of people. The coôperative apartment is cheaper either than a private residence or than a rented apartment of the same size. Ít ís peculiarly adapted to the needs of a well-to-do family, living in the neighborhood of New York, who want to have a place in the city whieĩi is ready for occupation at any time, and on the shortest notice. Tiiere can be no doubt, also, that the cooperative apartment house, if it coutinues to sueeeed, will also prove to be a severe competitor with the private resideuce. It enables its own- er to obtain a permanent dwelling in a good location for iess money than he would have to pay for an old brown stone house in a very much inferior location, and the num- ber of people who have been buying these apartments may partly account for the fact that the building of new private residences is almost at a standstill. The plans have been filed for only about a dozen of theni, so far, during the eurrent year, whicli is a new low record. Manhattan and the Other Boroughs. WHATBVER may be the course of generaĩ business during the coming year, the existing situation and the future prospects of the real estate niarket in New York City do not raise many questions which cannot be answered. The wave of speculation in Manhattan real estate which be- gan în 1901 and reaehed its height in 1906 is now deftnitely subsiding. It is receding slowly and its effects will linger for some years; but its force is none the less spent. It was dependent upon conditions whieh have now been partially superseded, and the next boom in Manhattan real estate, whenever it comes, will take on decidedly different charac- teristics. Manhattan will cease to be tlie eomparativeiy in- dependent city it has been in the past. It will become more and more in an economie sense what it has been for ten years in a legal sense. It will beeome more and more merely one borough of a greater eity; and its desirability both for residential and business purposes will become more and more strictly specialized. It will come to have, that is, a special and limited function in that larger economic or- ganism, whiéh is known as Greater New York. The recent speculative boom in Manhattan real estate was remarkable for its diffused effeet upon aĩl classes of property and all parts of the city. It affected either suc- cessively or at the same tinie gilt-edged real estate ĩn the ftnancial distriet, the new wholesale section north of Four- teenth Street, the streets and avenues devoted to retaĩl trade and amusements, the private residential guarter soutli and east of Central Park, and tĩie neighborhoods all over the island in which tenement houses were built. Of course it affected some classes of property much more than others; and there is one district, viz,, Greenwich village, which it passed by almost entirely. But on the whole it is distinctly true to say that this long and lucrative speculative exploitation of Manhattan real estate was as far as possible from being limited or specialized in its influence, It was based upon* the growth of Manhattan as an independent eeonomic and domestic organism, in which all phases of business and res- idential activity were deveioping side by side. The only class of buildings which had beeu of much importanee in tho past life of Manhattan and whieh were neglected during the reeent speculative movement, were tlie cheaper grade of private residences. The eost of land in desirable neighbor- hoods had become so high that New Yorkers of moderate means, who wanted houses of their own, were pretty well foreed to live outside of Manhattan, and this stoppage in the eonstruction of eheap írivate houses in Manhattan con- tained a plain prophecy of simiĩar changes to follow, but the.'ĩe changes did not develop during the course of the re-