Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 29, no. 745: June 24, 1882

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EAL STATE AND BUILDERS' GUIDE. Vol. XXIX. NEW TOBK, SAT0BDAT, JXTNE 2i, 1882. No. 745 Published Weekly by The Real Estate Record Association TERMS: ONE YEAR, in advance ----- $6.00 Communications should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 191 Broadway. J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager. The subject of a Real Estate Exchange is still being actively discussed by all dealers in realty. The more the matter is looked into, the more general becomes the impres¬ sion that a.Real Estate Exchange is one of the necessities of the future. Elsewhere will be found some very sensible interviews on the subject. As yet we have heard no dissent from any real estate dealer whose, opinion was worth anything. It is acknowl¬ edged that it would add immensely to the business in realty, and, with a proper Ex¬ change, New York could transact re il estate business for all parts of the country. The commissions, perhaps, would be less, but they would be more than made up by the multitude of transactions. It will be seen that several of the dealers who have been interviewed, suggest means whereby titles may be searched promptly, so that transac¬ tions in the same piece of property might frequently: occur. It is, of course, under¬ stood that oheof the embarrassments ia the way is the time and money-wasting legal barbarisms whicii impede the transfer of- property from seller to buyer.' After an Exchange was fairly in operation, pressure could be brought to bear upon the Legisla¬ ture to so alter our laws that real property could be transferred as readily as personal property. . ho street cars or elevated roads cheap cabs would pay in New York as well as in Lon¬ don and Paris, but it is idle to talk about 25 and 50 cents fare, when one can be cari'ied more cheaply and swifter to one's destina¬ tion by the elevated roads. There is no field in New York fcir cheap cabs. THE CROPS AND We call aitention to the; letter elsewhere of a large property holder, respecting the subject of a street car track on Broadway, between Fourteenth, street and the Battery. The writer gives some excellent reasons for believing that such a road could not now be built, that the tirne for it is past. Lower Broadway is no longer a retail street. Its principal business now and hereafter will be for wholesale de9,lers. The subject of a Broadway raUroad rwill be actively pressed if the Governor signs the railway bill, and there wUli be- the; usual contentionabout it in the press. There >are those who believe that an electric railway may be the solution of passenger tra,ffio between the Battery and Union Square.; There will be no smoke or noise, and the ^Vated structure might be made aim ost ornam en tal. Something should be done to relieve Broadway of the great lumbering stages, but any sort of an elevated road, even the most unobjectionable, would be opposed, we think, by the property hold¬ ers as well as the existing elevated railroad monopolies. Some unwise newspapers are raising the question of cheap street cabs, oblivious of the fact that they have been tried twenty times and have always failed. If there were PROSPECT FOR BUSINESS. A careful summary of facts about the crops given by our Chicago correspondent in last week's Real Estate Record has been fully confirmed by the newspaper re¬ ports received since that publication. The South aud the Southwest grow more wheat and oats this year than ever before, while the corn in those regions covers a large acreage and looks well. The crops in Ten¬ nessee, Kentucky, Texas, Kansas and Mis¬ souri are extraordinarily large, and are beginning to come into the market. The. wheat and oat fields promise to be immense throughout tl e country, and, except in Michigan, the hay crops will be very large. The corn crop is, however, the one draw¬ back to the situation. It is a month late, north of the Ohio and Missouri Rivers, and it jvill require two hot forcing months to give an average yield per acre. But then the high price and the necessity for food to feed cattlvj has so stimulated the corn planting throughout the country, that the increased acreage will more than make up for the backward season. Tl ere are causes at work, too, which will diminish the demand for corn from the West. The South and t^e Southwest will have the largest supply ever known, and will not need to purchase much from the region north and west of the Ohio River. Then there is so large a stock of whiskey on hand that there will be very little corn required for distillation this year. Unless some disaster should occur, the new crops of all kinds will be nearly equal to those of 1880, and will give the railroads a splendid business by the middle of next Sep¬ tember. For some time past we have been hinting at the probability of a bull movement dur¬ ing June. On April 29 The Record said : " If the indications should be favorable by the early part of June, an early rising mar¬ ket will come with the advent of hot weather," and we have repeatedly pointed ou tthe certainty of a bull movement in June, based upon the promise of the crops. This we have had, though it must be confessed the upward tendency of prices was due in a great measure to the condition of the mar¬ ket. James R. Keene has been the magician who made the change. When the Meeker Bros, failed he suddenly covered his shorts and went long of the market. The spurt of Lake Shore from 98 to 118 was largely due to the forced covering of the bears, for Van¬ derbilt helped Keene. Jay Gould was caught short of Lake Shore, and, according to ruiuor, made a settlement. the bea.rs was discovered, and many other privale settlements were made. We are disposed to look hopefuUy upon the situation. The price of grain and provis¬ ions ought to steadily diminish from this time forth, and if that occurs railway stocks will be held firmly and may advance. There is no danger of a panic. AU Western accounts agree that the farmers are out of debt, and have money in hand. It is true, they have neither grain nor cattle in reserve, but then they are bare of goods. They will not only, have all the money they need for business purposes, but will have a surplus for new in¬ vestments in land and in raUway shares. But there is no hope of seeing the buU times which closed last July reinaugarated this year, excitement such as that of 1879, 1880 and the spring of 1881 only come i at rave in¬ tervals in a decade, but if the crops this year turn out as good as they promise to be, the fall businet s will be very ^ood, stocks will be higher, and real estate will be in active' demand. A cheapening of food products will rid us of pur labor ti-oubles. ' Altogether ' the situation is hopeful. Money-is easy and' likely to remain so, while the immigratiiC)fi continues phenomenally large. The bears in stock prices will tot be in favor for the next j^e'ar; unless some unexpected disaster should pccur to the growing crops. ; WESTERN LAND SPECULATIONS. ; Certain shrewd capitalists in this city have made a great amount of money in dealing in Western real estate during the last year and a half. The large grants of lands to rail¬ ways led, in times past, to the distribution of blocks of real estate, in the form of wild lands, to certain retired railway men. For years this land has been a burden to its owners. It was apparently unsaleable, and the taxes were seldom less than 35 cents per acre per annum. But the immigration, foreign and domestic, which has been flow¬ ing west over the Mississippi in such great numbers lately, has been seeking these lands. Great quantities have been taken up, but tbe owners in New York have not profited, as a general thing, by the rise in values. A class of brokers has been developed who know how to dispose of the land to the immigrants, and who are in league with rich men in this and other cities, who purchase the iand in great blocks for cash and sell to the immi¬ grant on time. We know of one very rich man who has added a quarter of a mUlion to his possessions within the last year, and this without leaving the city. He buys ten and twelve thousand acres at a time, paying $4 and $5 an acre, reselling to the purchaser at 100 to 125 per cent, advance, and taking his pay in 25 per cent, down and a mortgage. If the farmer pays up, weU and good; if he does not; the seller gets back, the farm, great¬ ly enhanced in value. The number of new and good farms taken up within the past two years has been very large in aU the Western country, and in the more settled An unsus- j neighborhoods the price of realty has pected amount of financial weakness among i doubled. The time cannot be distant when