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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 70, no. 1796: August 16, 1902

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August 16, 1902. RECORD AND GUIDE. 229 T^ •* ESrABDSHED-^ttW:H2l^^lBS8. DB/trnD TO f^ Estate . BmLonfc ApsiKrizcrvmE .HousnloU) Diwu^tJ. BUSufesS ArioTHEHES Of GElfeR^ iKltRgSl. PIUCE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE SIX DOLLARS Tubtished eVerg Saturdag OonununlcaUons should be addreseed to C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Veaey Street, New YorK J. T. UNDSET, Bnalnesa Manaffer Telepiione. Cortlandt 318T "Ihdei-e ' -t he pos Ofic at Hfew Tori if. T.. as second- ta s vialter." Vol. LXX. AUGUST 16, 1902. No. 1796. THE Stock Market has met every test gallantly. In the course of one year pretty nearly everything calculated to depress values has occurred, beginning with the murder of the ever lamented McKinley to the comparatively insignificant hard¬ ening of money this week, to say nothing of the most serious and obstinate strike known for many years. Yet quoted values have advanced. This can only be due to the soundness of the founda¬ tion. The activity in the market will doubtless increase from this on, with a broadening in the transactions in the direction indicated last week, that of the Industrials. It is coming home to investors and operators that the Railroads cannot be bene¬ fiting by conditions which do not touch the Industrials. No one would attempt to sustain such a proposition, which would amount to a dictum that the agent could prosper continuously while the principal lanquished. There is then every expectation that the market will broaden and activity increase on new lines. Instead of the trading being in Railroads as exclusively as it has been in the past the securities predicated on other callings will have a larger share in the public favor. Stocks and bonds of the soft coal roads ought to appreciate because of the increased husiness they are doing as a result of the stoppage of the sup¬ ply of hard coal, as ought those of anthracite carriers which also do a large business in bituminous coal, like Pennsylvania and Erie, because of the compensation they receive for the loss of one in the larger tonnage of the other. It seems illogical to say so, but those roads that are more distinctively and exclus¬ ively producers and carriers of anthracite need not depreciate, because when once the strike is settled they will be repaid for their present loss by the higher prices they will receive for their product. We may be sure that the strike prices will not go back to the figure prevailing before the mines shut down for a long time, after the settlement is arrived at. This is a result nat¬ urally to be expected from the activity of the times and the in¬ creased ability of holders to carry securities. If times were hard and money scarce, the contrary would be tbe case. Confi¬ dence in the general business situation is increasing. We may look for a more favorable bank statement to-day, than appeared either last week or the week before, and the business community are very greatly encouraged by the crop outlook. It used to be a maxim, never measure your corn before the middle of Sep¬ tember, when danger from frost has been met or passed; but owing to long immunity this is now forgotten. A MORE cheerful feeling is evidenced abroad. Threatened trouble not only did not mature, hut seems to have passed away, and the commercial readjustments called for by the closing of the Boer war are being completed without fric¬ tion. London may be said to he becoming even chipper com¬ pared with the temper it displayed until this week. The assur¬ ance of the return of the King's health may have something to do with this changed disposition. It may be sentiment, but sen¬ timent has a very powerful bearing on business as we all know Sir John Savory, Chairman of the London and Provincial bank, recently congratulated his sharrholders upon the scope afforded at home and abroad for the utilization of British capital. "Re¬ ports," he said, "from the United States tell us of an abundant harvest and of an unusual maize crop, greatly in excess of last year, and also is in excess of any previous record, and when we turn to Canada it is impossible to exaggerate the scope there is at the present time for the development of British enterprise. In railways, in other undertakings, and in mines, Canada presents great opportunities, and is at the present time enjoying excep¬ tional prosperity. Turning to our own country, we have, I am pleased to tell you, very hopeful features before us. The agricul¬ tural prospects of to-day are excellent It is years since it could he said there were such ail-round good prospects in roots, corn, and hay, and the prospects for live stock are also good." An in¬ dication that John Bull is waking up is the talk of railroad com¬ binations. If effected, these will have a very important bearing on the contest for international trade, of which so much is said. Great Britain has a banking system, the result of what we call "trusting," or combination, that makes money flow in the direc¬ tion where it is most needed, and this is a most important fac¬ tor in international trade competition. But it has long been the complaint that the railroads do not give the same facili¬ ties for placing manufactures on the seaboard, or at the rates that are supplied by the State and subsidized railroads of the Continent and the highly developed and organized systems of the United States. Placed upon an equality in this respect with his German or American competitor, tbe British manufacturer claims that he will be better able to meet them. It is undoubt¬ edly the case that, if the British railroads should become as sys¬ tematized as are the British banks, the position of the manu¬ facturers will be greatly improved both for home and foreign trade. On the Continent the outlook is not so cheerful. In France, political disturbances have a bad effect, and Germany has to do some liquidating yet, but with the two greatest com¬ mercial nations of the world advancing the rest will follow in due course. The Real Estate Situation. THE phrase "dull but strong" accurately describes the current real estate market. The dullness is very manifest, but the strength is equally so. The number of sales reported weekly is very small, and few of them are of much importance. One of the most curious facts about real estate operations this summer is the persistence of certain peculiar conditions. In the tables showing the total number of papers filed at the Register's of¬ flce, and the amount involved hy them, the sum of the prices ex¬ pressed in the deeds as a rule increases with the increase in the number of papers recorded, and decreases in the same way. But throughout the present summer, there has been almost uni¬ formity and increase in the number of conveyances accompanied hy a decrease in the amount involved. Thus, in the week end¬ ing July 12th, there were 310 papers recorded against 237 for the corresponding week last year, but these 310 papers only called for an aggregate consideration of $2,449,578 against the larger total of $3,068,368 for corresponding days in 1901. In week ending Aug. 9th the number of conveyances was 255 against only 167 for the corresponding dates last year, but the amount involved last year was $1,581,915, against only $957,117 for 1902. During the five weeks from July 3d to Aug. Sth, there were 1,257 transfers recorded in 1902 and 997 In 1901; but the 997 in 1901 involved $15,134,229, while the 1,257 in 1902 involved only $9,605,518. It might be supposed that this continuous dis¬ crepancy indicated a remarkable falling off in the size or cost of the average parcel transferred; as a matter of fact there has been such a falling off; but it is not at all as large as the figures shown above would indicate. This is because the number of conveyances at nominal considerations have been much larger in 1902 than in 1901—the figures for the five weeks of 1902 men¬ tioned above being 748, against only 425 for the corresponding period last year. The number of conveyances for nominal con¬ siderations always increases proportionally in the summer time owing to the increased ratio of speculative or merely legal con¬ veyances, but it has never before reached 60 per cent, of the total number of conveyances as it has this summer. The winter ratio of the one to the other is usually about one-third, and tbe summer ratio two-fifths, instead of three-fifths. At the same time even this increase in the number of conveyances at nominal consideration does not account for the whole of the discrep¬ ancy noticed above. The number of papers filed, in which con¬ siderations were expressed, were 61 larger in the five weeks of 1901 than in 1902; butatthe same time the average sum of money involved by each transfer has been only $18,790 so far during the summer of 1902 against $26,460 during the summer of 1901. The figures indicate a number of things with sufficient plain¬ ness. In the first place, the present market, such as it is, is more speculative and professional than ever before. In the second place, tbe high prices now charged for Manhattan property have discouraged dealings in expensive real estate. Though inactivity in the real estate market continues to be its most prominent feature, this condition, however, is no different from that which generally prevails at this season, and there is no reason for supposing that it will not end with the vacation period. The sale of a $200,000 dwelling at such a time is inter¬ esting in showing that even during the summer when the rich man is supposed to be out of town,such transactions are possible, and it tends to bespeak an early reopening of the active season. Sales of plots for two new hotels are also among the reports made public this week, one in the Longacre section, which thus