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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 73, no. 1877: March 5, 1904

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March .S, 1904 RECORD AND GUIDE An ^ ESTAEIUSHID^lJlJkBpHeiii^iaea. • Bi/soiESS ai^Thches Of CEtfan^. iKTEfi^p PAIGE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE. SIX DOLLARS PubUihcd eVerp Saturday Communications ahould be addreoBed to C. W. SWEET. 14-16 Vesey Street. New Y«rK a. T. LIHDSET, BuBlneas Manager Telephone, Ctortl»Bilt 81BT "XtUered at the Post Offlce al Neio York. If. Y., as second-class maOtr." Vol. LXXIII, MARCH 5. 1904, No. 1877 The Index to Volume LXXl of Ihe Record and Guide, cover¬ ing iheperiod bctircen July I and Drcembcr 31, 1903. ts now ready for. delivery. I'rive,'$1. Thin Index in its enlaryed form is now recognized as indispensable lo every one engaged or interested in real estate and building operations. It covers all transactions— deeds, mortgages, leases, auction sales, building plans filed, etc. Orders for the Index should be sent atonce to the ofiice of pubUca tion, 14 and 16 Vesey St _^____ DURING the spring and summer of 1902 everybody whose judgment was not perverted by "prosperity" realized that the prices of securities w.ere in general too high, but even the man who was most assured of this fact would naturally hesi¬ tate, such was the prevailing speculative temper, to sell the market short. Conversely at the present time it is a demon¬ strable proposition that prices are lower than the intrinsic values of good securities, whether railroad or industrials; but in the same way no one cares to buy stocks, except on a big margin and for a long pull. No one can tell precisely when the market will get out of its present rut; it may have to beat time to the existing measure until next November; and all indications point to the fact that the general investing community is resting, after the fever of 1901, 1902 and part of 1903, and that the recu¬ peration will take as many months as the debauch. The great saving fact of the situation is the undeniable prosperity of the farmers, and the only circumstances which will prevent this prosperity from lasting through 1904 would be an absolute fail¬ ure of the crops. With grain and cotton selling at their present prices, even an ordinary yield of agricultural products would mean prosperity for the people who produce them. But there is no prosperity just uow for the hard-working men, who pro¬ duce prices on the Stock Exchange. The market has lost its interest evea for the most professional of the professional specu¬ lators; and the only people who can find pleasure or profit in the existing situation are the money-lenders. Great is the power of cash. LAST spring, before the strike in the huiiding trades and the prolonged cessation of work, the Record and Guide predicted that there would be a house famine in Manhattan during the com¬ ing fall and spring. There can be little doubt that such a famine has arrived. Of course we do not mean that the increasing and fluid population will not actually be able to find residence ac¬ commodation somewhere; but if they remain in Manhattan they will have to pay even higher prices for their habitations than they are paying now. The course of rents is bound to be up¬ wards because the supply continues low, while the demand is active and urgent. The intention of the Rhinelander estate to raise the rents of its houses is not, indeed, any evidence of a further increase in this respect, for in point of fact, no wide¬ spread increase has as yet taken place in the part of the city in which the Rhinelander estate is situated; nevertheless the fact that tlli estate notices a strong enough demand for its houses to warrant the insistence on higher rentals indicates that the levelling up is spreading throughout the whole of the city, and is affecting property off the main line of improvement, Harlem, of course, has heen the area in which the most complete change cf condition has taken place, and tenement houses the kind of property most affected; but there are indications that property on the Weet Side and apartment houses of a more expensive character aro also feeling more strongly the influence making for higher hentals. During the past week the West Side has figured more prominently in the news than has heen cus¬ tomary of late. Yet iu spite of these high rentals and the enormously improved investment standing of all sorts of build¬ ings, there are very few new buildings being erected and very few old ones being really sold. There is an extremely lively speculation in contracts taking place; but there ia very little real buying and building underway. Of course it is merely a question of time when the barriers will be broken down and the flood of new. buildings erected. It may be expected that the resistant forces will be strong enough this spring to keep the market very much in its present position; hut if so, the mine is being laid which will explode with one of the biggest building speculations for residential purposes that New York has ever seen. THE annual dinner of the Real Estate Board of Brokers is the one occasion on which the gentlemen interested in real estate in this city get together and talk over their conditions and prospects. During the past two years, under the able presiding management of Mr. Ward, the dinners have been extremely successful, and the one held last Saturday night was also remarkable, because of the large number of prominent city officers who were present and gave an authoritative expression of their views. Corporation Counsel Delany was there, and Police Commissioner McAdoo, who always speaks happily and to the point; but the vigorous utterances of Comptroller Grout on the subject of mortgage taxation was particularly well timed and awakened the sympathetic interest of his audience. In spite of his radical disbelief in the princii)le of mortgage taxation, the Comptroller evidently agrees with Mr. Purdy, and indeed wilh the whole real estate interest, that the mortgage recording tax supplies the best temporary solution of the prob¬ lem. There can be no doubt that it would immensely improve the position of borrowers on real estate in the New York loan market, and just at the present time their position is very much in need of improvement. As yet, however, no word has come down from Albany whether the bill wjll or will not he passed. The program of oflicial legislation is exceedingly slow in developing this year. Some plan of increased taxation the Governor will most assuredly press; but his procrastination in announcing what that plan will be is a sufficient evidence of division in the party councils about these important matters! The mortgage recording tax depends upon the decision which the party leaders ultimately reach, because if passetl at all, it will be passed not as a small measure of justice to real estate, but as a State revenue bill. It is not the purpose, however, with which it is passed that is the essential thing, but the fact of its passage, which will, as Mr. Purdy pointed out, save bor¬ rowers in this State some $10,000,000 per annum. It is no wonder, consequently, that the brokers were interested in the mat¬ ter, and passed a unanimous resolution in favor of the bill. The other prominent cily official present on this occasion, Tenement House Commissioner Crain, had a good deal to say about the desirability of modifying the rigidity of the existing law, but whatever may he the Commissioner's opinion as to the desir¬ ability of making the application of the law more flexible, it is encouraging to notice that he thoroughly approves the purpose of the law and its main provisions, and proposes to stand hy it. THE RECORD AND GUIDE is glad to note that the tide seems to he setting in the direction of an underground instead of an elevated connection between the new bridges and the old one. It looked at one time as if a new connecting ele¬ vated railroad would most assuredly he built, either on Centre Street or Baxter Street, but the project will apparently he blocked, as it should he. in the Rapid Transit Commission. According to its advocates, the elevated connection has the ad¬ vantage of economy and celerity of construction. As to the economy of an elevated road, we doubt very much the reality of the advantage, provided the unavoidable damages to adjacent property are included in the estimate. There is no doubt that the overhead connection can be more quickly constructed, but this is its only advantage. In other respects, a tunnel is very much to be preferred. Overhead railroads belong to the past period of rapid transit in this city. The streets should not be disfigured with any more of thera; and so important a connection as that between the bridges should be made to articulate with the great and growing subway system of the metropolis, not with the partly superseded elevated system. For our own part, we should like to see the Manhattan Bridge abandoned and the money spent in building a couple of tunnels under the East River, properly connected with each other and with the existing subway. The Record and Guide realizes, how¬ ever, that the abandonment of this bridge would be politically inexpedient and would provoke resentment in Brooklyn. The Manhattan Bridge will have to be built; but if built, it and the new Wiiliamsburgh Bridge should not he made an excuse for encumbering the streets with an elevated structure which would have to be both wide and heavy. Mayor McClellan is showing admirable zeal in pushing for the early running of cars over the new bridge, and there can be no doubt that bis zeal is war-