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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 29, no. 738: May 6, 1882

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Estate Record AND BUILDERS' GUIDE. Vol. XXIX. NEW TOEK, SATUEDAY, MAY 6, 1882. No. 738 Published Weekly by The Real Estate Record Association TERMS: ONE YEIR, in advance.....$6.00 Communications should he addressed to C. W. SWEET, 191 Broadway. J. T. LINDSEY. Business Manager. The Real Estate Record offices are now at 191 Broadway, corner of Dey street. COMPARED BY MONTHS. The following table gives tlie niimber of conxeyances and mortgages for April, to¬ gether with the preceding nionths up to and including September, 1881. With the ex¬ ception of the two winter months this exhibit shows there has been a steady increase in the number of transactions and the amounts involved. There were less than four hundred transfers in September and over fourteen hundred in April, w^hile the |5,0U0,000of the one month is swollen to $20,000,000 in March and April. One notable circumstance is the increase of transactions in the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth Wards. The money transactions in the property of the annexed district are nearly three times greater than they were in Sep¬ tember last. But again the caution should be borne in mind tbat the table we give represents the bargains actually made in March but not recorded until April. 23d & 1881. Cons. Am't. Nom. 24th VV. Am't. nom Sept. 3S9 , $4,9.37,744 103 .59 S218,nei 12 Oct. 619 8,6-24,824 109 ':5 381,5'0 23 Nov. 876 13,464,964 235 133 353..5(i5 19 Dec. 719 14,459,915 226 72 190,010 10 1882. Jan. 785 13,970,643 190 102 2G0.735 22 Feb. 904 11,776,640 273 91 317,3^6 31 Mar. 1,191 20,422,338 294 119 .376,293 38 Apr. 1,471 19,090,316 340 133 5-^7,989 22 T. & 1881. Morts. Am't. 5 p. c. Am'c. I. Co. Am't. Sept. 497 S4,329,ri2 96 $1,261,881 89 $1,848,2.50 Oct. 793 6,071.0:26 134 1,333,181 141 2,09.5,125 Nov. 954 12,3I.5,n3 208 2,556.695 166 5,30,3,^73 Dec. 856 10,177,583 153 1,931,891 183 3,112,304 1883. Jan. 857 7,998,831. 183 2,217,187 170 2..553,550 Feb. 942 8,66.),902 209 3,295.518 173 2,055,000 Mar. 1,017 13,680.536 274 4,314,082 189 3,294.405 Apr. 1,184 10,6.5,845 3^9 8,411,940 154 2,581,9 0 THE NEW YORK, WEST SHORE AND BUFFALO RAILWAY. Real estate on the west shore of the Hud¬ son will be affected in a very important de¬ gree by the rapid completion of the West Shore Road. The east shore has been built up to its present .state of remarkable develop¬ ment by the railroad facilities which it en¬ joys, and the west shore promises now to have very soon equal advantages. There is li'^ely to be a marked rise in realty all along this new railway, which will give the country on the west shore of the Hudson the first direct communication it has ever had with New York. In this respect, the New York, West Shore & Buffalo Railway, bids fair to turn out one of the most useful and valuable enterprises to the community ever undertaken in this State. ■ The laying of steel rails, which has actually begun at Syr¬ acuse, aud will be going on at various points of the road with great energy during the next few weeks, shows that no interruption is being allowed to intervene in this work, involving so vast an expenditure. Over 10,000 tons of heavy 67-pound steel rails with fastenings and cross ties have been de¬ livered alongside the tracks. In passing different points of the line we have lately been struck by the extraordinarily solid character of the construction. The road is being built as though it was to last forever. The heavy steel rails, the rock-ballasted track, which promise to afford great smoothness of motion in the cars, the strong iron bridges and substantial cul¬ verts of masonry all give the char¬ acter of the work an aspect of excep¬ tional endurance, solidity, and perma¬ nence. The immense accommodation which this road will be to people traveling on the west shore, may easily be realized from the fact that, to take the summer season alone, it has been estimated that 100,000 travelers go to the Catskill region every summer. Indeed, there are no bridges between New York and Albany, and only eight steam fer¬ ries, which are an average distance of 18" miles apart. If a resident of West Point, for instance, wants to go to Newburg, he must cross the river twice, and the same tedious course must be taken with reference to any freight which he may have to ship. The counties on the west shore of the Hudson, which are traversed by the New York, West Shore & Buffalo Railway, embrace |one of the richest agricultural and manufacturing belts in the United States. The sales from their farms amount to about $60,000,000 per annum, and the value of their manufactures in 1880 Avas over $360,000,000. It has been calculated that the population of these, counties on the west shore of the Hudson exceeds that on the east shore by 80 per cent.—it is nearly double, therefore. The people along the new line appear to appre¬ ciate the beneficial effects which the New York, West Shore & Buffalo Railway will exercise on their property and business in¬ terests, for the city authorities of the larger towns, like Newburg, have readily given the railway company almost invaluable rights of way through their very centres, and the com¬ pany have been uniformly successful in secur¬ ing a full 100 feet of land across their tracks from the farmers on very advantageous terms. The line is so straight, and the curves and grades are so exceedingly easy and favorable, that the road, with the large local business of the west shore country be¬ tween New York and Albaiy, should be very profitable, and have low operating ex¬ penses. Tliere is some talk of running trains already this autumn, but some time must pi'obably be allowed for the usual contingen¬ cies. The Record will continue to observe with special interest the approaching comple¬ tion of the work which is likely to have so marked an inflaence on real estate on the west shore of the Hudson River, and to give that side a wonderful stimulus for improve- , ment and progress. AGRARIANISM IN NEW YORK. The Herald has managed to raise a ghost that will not down, in its discussions about the rent question in New York. Proceeding upon the theory that there was some relation between the land troubles in Ireland and the paying of rent in New York, it gave the Communists an argument by showing tha,t there were some 16,000 evictions in New York in one year. There were, it seems, that number of persons or families who were forced to leave their apartments for non¬ payment of rent. At several of the recent meetings of laborers, this fact was restated in order to create a prejudice against land¬ lords as a class, and to begin in this country an organization for the reduction, if not the abolition of rent paying. The Herald is now forced to rebuke the demagogues who are raising the " No Rent" banner in New York. Of course, there is no comparison between the state of Ireland and the condition of things in New York. When an Irish tenant is evicted from a farm, the improvements on which are in great part his own, he has no¬ where to go, he must starve or die; but a New York tenant who is dispossessed has tens of thousands of other tenements to go to, and if he is penniless there are hundreds of ways by which he and his family can get relief. He has no moral claim on the land¬ lord any more than the greatest stranger in the world. Were it a part of the written or unwritten law that tenants had a claim upon the landlord, it would result in an enormous tax upon the whole community, for the landlords, to provide an insurance fund against delinquent tenants, would, in order to get an equitable return for their money, be forced to raise rents 10,15 or 20 per cent., or whatever the losses would be, due to the carelessness or dishonesty of non-rent pay¬ ing tenants. It is clearly in the interest of honest rent payers that the law enforcing the summary collection of rents should be prompt and stern, A certainty of there- turn for his outlay is what the landlord has a right to expect, and it is in the interest of the community that his just exi^ectations should be realized. Unfortunately, the local justices and magistrates who adjudi¬ cate matters affecting landlords and tenants are elected by the popular vote, and they do what they can to modify the law in the sup¬ posed interest of the delinquent tenant. In helping to defraud landlords they are really injuring the rent paying class, and it is a matter of amazement that a paj)er like the Herald, owned by one of the largest land¬ owners in New York, and which receives more money from the legitimate real estate interest than any other paper in the country, should have started this mischievous agita¬ tion, the more mischievous in view of our large Irish tenement population, and the number of dishonest people who congregate in large cities. On this subject, we have received the following communication: editor Real Estate Record: The anti-landlord cry, which you speak of in your paper, will very likely assume gigantic eminence in our politics. Emigrants, who have