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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 27, no. 681: April 2, 1881

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Real Estate Record AND BUILDERS' GUIDE. Vol. XXYII. NEW TORK, SATURDAY, APRIL 2, 1881. No. 681 Published Weekly by The Real Estate Record Association TERBIS: 0]VE YEAR, in advance.....$6.00 Communications should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 13T Broadway. J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager. Would it not be well for the editors of the daily papers to revise the articles on real estate in which the subjects of rents are discussed ? In commenting on this subject, the reporters of the Tribune and other papers have been allowed to indulge in com¬ ments which read like the emanations of Justus Schwab in an East Side beer saloon at an anti-rent meeting. The reporters indulge iu criticisms on landlords entirely unwarranted by the facts. Up to 1879 the tenants had the best of the landlords, and owners of real properfcy were the most impoverished of the well-to-do classes, for taxes were heavy a/id rents light. There lias been a change, however, and because landlords are charging a fair interest on their money, they are abused. It would, of course, be a misfortune for the city if rents were so high as to drive people over to Brooklyn or Jersey. But this is a matter which will adjust itself. A particularly ven¬ omous attack is made upon the owners of real estate in Harlem, but rents have not advanced in that quarter more than in other growing portions of the city. Tenants would do well to take advantage of the present rates and secure long leases. There is no likelihood of lower rents in this city for many years to come. Everything is con¬ spiring to make real property on this island more valuable every year. It may be that in certain sections east of the Bowery and Third avenue there will be no improvement in prices, but the southern end of the island and the whole western por¬ tion from the Battery to Spuyten Duyvil is certain to increase in value, with a corre¬ sponding increase in rentals. The news¬ papers should bear this in mind and not permit their impecunious reporters to write nonsense respecting the rentals of New York. In Broadway, from Canal street down¬ ward, there is to be very little tearing down and rebuilding this season, that part being already built up so high and so solidly as to call for little change for years to come. A large portion of the structures in this part of the city have been well built by good archi¬ tects, but many of them that were put up by mere builders twenty or twenty-five years ago, more with a view to a flne appearance than to solidity, will have to come down gradually before many years. Further up¬ town there will be considerable demolition and reconstruction after the flrst of May. Between Madison square and Forty-third street the increased rents, consequent upon the large advance in the price of property, have caused many stores and offices to be placarded " To Let," the present occupants being disinclined to agree to the advance. The reasons of the advance in this quarter are the improvements on Broadway, above Forty-first street, the proposed Opera House at Fortieth street, and the probability of the property being needed for large business structures, as trade moves up-town. ATTENTION, BUILDERS ! Before the year 1891 there will be a large addition to the population of New York. A conservative estimate is that in ten years time 500,000 people will be added to our pop¬ ulation, of which 400,000 will be on this island alone. This estimate is based upon the result of the several censuses, state and national, taken since the war. Indeed, there is reason to believe that our progress in the future in numbers will be greater than it bas been in the past. It follows, if this estimate is correct, that there is no dan¬ ger of overbuilding. Indeed, as a matter of fact, the erection of houses has not kept pace with the growth of our population. The following table, compiled from official sources, tells its own story : Total No. No. of Apart- No. buildings first-class ment other than Year, erected, dwellings, houses, first-class. 1868.. 2,014 8.53 0 1,161 1869.. 2,348 840 1 1,.507 1S70.. 2,351 822 0 1,.529 1871.. 2,782 1,049 0 1,733 1872.. 1,728 499 1 1,228 1873.. 1,311 206 0 1,10.5 1874.. 1.388 3.34 0 1,1.54 1875.. i;406 382 112 912 1876.. 1,379 439 115 825 1877.. 1,432 421 157 8.54 1878.. 1,672 .525 99 1,048 1879.. 2,065 764 253 1,048 ISSO.. 2,252 900 516 836 The above figures are worth studying. We did not erect as many houses in 1880 as we did in 1871 by five hundred and thirty, and of first-class houses not so many by one hundred and forty-nine. But sioce 1874 a new class of buildings has come into fashion which were unknown before that period. We mean great apartment houses. In 1875 we erected one hundred and twelve of these ; in 1879, two hundred and fifty-three, and in 1880, five hundred and sixteen. We doubt if so many large apartment houses will be built this year, but there will un¬ doubtedly be a large increase in the number of smaller flats of a cheaper kind. The number of rich people who want to live in elegant apartments and yet not be hampered with a whole house is steadily increasing, while families from abroad will prefer apart¬ ment houses, as it gives them a sense of luxury and comfort which they cannot get at the public hotel or private lodgings in an ordinary family house. New York, to-day, wants from seven to ten new and magnificent hotels, superior to any now open. Whether we have a World's Fair or not. these great caraA^ansaries are needed to supply accommodations for the rich strangers who are thronging in increas¬ ing numbers to our city. Our first-class hotels to-day are over full, and they are not all well located. Now that we have rapid transit, a hotel further up-town than the Windsor would not be out of place. Indeed, the neighborhood of the Central Park is peculiarly suited for hotels that would be attractive to invalids coming to the city for medical advice ; to rich strangers who wish to take advantage of the drives in and above the park, while they would not be out of place for merchants, who can easily reach down-town stores by our luxurious elevated road cars. We judge that there has been too much building of houses which cost anywhere between 116,000 and $40,000; or rather not too much, but tbat the demand for such houses has been better supplied than those designed for the very rich or very poor. What is needed to-day are accommodations for the two extremes—the millionaires and the working population. These last ought not to be encouraged to remain on this island. The rapidity with which cheap houses have been sold north of the Harlem Eiver, near the railroad lines, furnishes a hint, which builders should take advantage of. New York is destined to become a great manufacturing city, but the homes for the mechanics and working people will be found in the Twenty-third and a portion of the Twenty-fourth Ward. Land is becom¬ ing too valuable in every part of this island to furnish houses at low rents. True, more tenement houses might be built, but it seems impossible to provide cleanly and wholesome homes for working people in any tenement house system that has been devised. The poor should be encouraged to own their own little house and lot in the outlying districts. The dangerous classes in a large city are those who occupy poor and densely populated neighborhoods. But the buildings that will j)ay best, and of which ma.ny are needed in New York to¬ day, are those which would be attractive to very ''ich families, who wish to reside in the metropolis. We live in a luxurious age and New York, from this time forth, will vie with the most costly capitals in the world. A glance at the above table, will show the steady increase which has been going on in the number of first-class houses, but it does not seem improbable that ten such will be built in the coming ten years where one was constructed within the last ten years. To sum up then, New York wants : 1st. A number of new hotels and costly French flats or apartment houses. 2d. Residences for the very rich, who wish to make New York their home and enjoy the advantages of our public parks, drives, amusements, art galleries and educational institutions. 3d. Homes for working people, to be loca¬ ted north of the Harlem River, and east of the New York and Northern road. Sixth avenue is stUl alive in spite of the dismal forebodings which the building of the elevated railroad aroused, and it leads Broadway a sharp competition for retail ; traffic. Gapifcalists are seekiag for eligible