Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 75, no. 1944: June 17, 1905

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June ly, 1905. RECORD KND GUIDE 1321 _ ^ ESTABUSHED-i. Deified 10 REA.L Estate , BuiLoiffc i&^RpKiTEeTai^E',Hcsusnlou) DECO^jTwt, BifsirlESS Alto Themes of GEjtoi^t iKTERf^l-j PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS Published every Saturdaa Communications sboulil ne addresBed to C. W. SWEET. 14-ie Vesey Street, New York Toiephone, Cortlandt 3157 "Entered at the Post O.fflc e at ^^ew York if. r. as second-class matler." Copyright by th Keal Estate Reeord a id Builders Guide Company. Vol. LXXV. JUNE 17 1905. No. 1944, INDEX TO DEPARTMENTS. (Advertising Section.) Page, Cement ...............xxvH Law ......... Clay Products .......... xxlv Machinery ..... Contractors and Builders. vil Metal Work Fireproofing ........... ii Heal Estate ..'. Granite ............... j:vi Stone Iron and Sleel........... xx Wood Products' Subscribers desiring to have the "Record and Guide" sent 'to their summer address will confer a great favor by always giving their old address as well as the nev.' address in sending in their instructions to the office of publication. TT was not to bfi expectetl that the renewal of activity and the ■■■ advancing prices which loolc place on Saturady ol last week indicated any comparatively permanent change in the specu¬ lative condition oi the Stoclv Marlvet, The spurt was due to temporary causes and was brought about by professional buy¬ ing. The dullness which preceded and followed the spurt showed much more plainly the kind of stock market which will prevail for the next month or two. There is no reason to sup¬ pose that anything will occur in the near future to warrant either an active selling or an active buying movement. Even the signing of a peace treaty between Japan and Russia would not have any eftect beyond a day or two, and the necessity that Russia would be under to raise an indemnity would tend to weaken still further the weakest aspect of the existing prospects —the danger that is, of a money stringency in the fall. Dull¬ ness wil! continue until good crops are assured. In the mean time the course of prices is likely to be up rather than down; but the movement will be small. The position of the Stock Market has been improving steadily of late, but it has been improving very slowly; and it will not do to anticipate a much faster improvement in the future. T^ HE real estate market has been proceeding along custom- ^ ary lines at a reasonable pace. The transactions both re¬ ported aud recorded are becoming smaller than, they were, but they continue to be more numerous than they were during the corresponding period of last year. During the next two weeks interest will be concentrated in the mortgage market. Wherever possible mortgages will, of course be recorded before July 1st, the date when the new tax becomes effective, and a great deal of business which ordinarily would be spread over several months will have,to be transacted before July 1st. The real estate money market has indeed been iu an extraordinary con¬ dition throughout the whole of the current year. Money has been easy, and plenty of it available on good security at four and four and one-half per cent. Nevertheless the character of the real estate business was such that unusually large sums of money had to be borrowed at unusually high rates of in¬ terest. Thus, the number of mortgages recorded on Manhattan real estate had increased up to the end. of the first week in June, from 7,2S8 in 1S04 to 10,802 in 1905, the percentage of increase being just about 50. But the amoivnt of money loaned during the same period increased from $136,000,000 in 1904 to $S5ij,000,000 in 1905, the percentage of increase in this case be¬ iiig a little less than 100. Thus the average sum of money carried by each mortgage was $18,600 in 1904 and about $24,000 in 1905, which is an enormous alteration to take place in one year. Quite as remarkable, however, is the change which has taken place in the amouut of money loaned at six per cent and the proportion it bears to the total amount loaned on Man¬ hattan property. Up to the end of the first week In June, 1904, there were 3,756 six per cent mortgages recorded, carrying with them about $40,000,000 in money, so that about half of all the mortgages boro interest at the rate of six per cent, and these mortgages covered two-sevenths of all the money loaned. But during tbe corresponoing period in 1905 there have been 6,567 mortgages recorded bearing interest at six per cent, and they loaned the total sum of $122,146,000. Thus conseciuently, about sixty per cent of the 1205 mortgages have named six per cent as tbe rate of interest, and these papers have carried with them almost half of the total amount of mouey loaned. These figures indicate both how much the speculative building of tenements has increased over last year, and how much of the speculation in vacant land has been financed at high rates of interest. ■^J RIVATE residences continue to be in fair demand, par- •^ ticularly in tbe residential districts to the south and east of Central Park. This demand is nothing extraordinary, but it is sufficient to indicate that Manhattan will take a long time to become a city of tenements and flats alone. Undoubtedly the actual supply of private dwellings in iManhattan decreases ffom year to year, for more of them are destroyed to make way for business buildings and flats than there are new ones erected, and at the present time the conversion of the old brownstone houses west of 5th Avenue and north of 34th St. into store and olEce buildings is so very active that one might expect an even larger demand for new dwellings on the part of the peo¬ ple, who have made money by selling out the houses in which they have been living. At any rate the demand has been suffi¬ cient to warrant the building of almost twice as many new residences as there were built last year. During the first six months of 1904 plans were flled for only SO private dwellings to be erected at au estimated cost of $946,000, while during the whole twelve months of that year plans were flled for only GO dwellings, which were estimated to cost $2,134,500, So far dur¬ ing 1905 plans have been flled for 57 dwellings, which are? es¬ timated to cost $2,946,000, Just as during 1904 the building of private dwellings in iManhattan touched its low water-mark, so during 19ii5 it is probable that as many private residences will be built as during auy year since 1899—when plans were flled for over 300. The locations in which the new residences are being built are distributed about the same as they have been of iate years. Up to date "Washington Heights is even more poorly represented than it was during the flrst six months of 1904, the flgures for last year being 18 dwellings to cost $302,000, while the figures for this year ai'e so far only 15 dwell¬ ings to cost $181,000. As compared to this, we may remark that plans have been flled for about 130 tenements to be built on Washington Heights at a cost of almost $7,500,000. It is in the district south of 59th St. that most money is being spent on new dwellings. In that section 12 new ones are to be erected, almost all by people who are building to occupy themselves, at a cost of $1,347,000, On the West Side on the other hand, the number of dwellings for which plans have been filed is 24, being twice as great, while the cost is only $743,000. a little over half aa much. The average cost of each new West Side dwelling is $30,000, while the average cost of each new dwelling erected to the east or south of the Park is over $100,000. WHY is it that the City cannot manage a building op¬ eration with anything approaching the directness and efficiency of a private corporation? Talce the case of the Hall of Records. If that structure had been intended as the head¬ quarters of say, one of our big life insurance companies, it would not only have been flnished long ago, but its eost would have been considerably less, which is saying a good deal when one considers how recldessly these institutions for the protection of the fatherless siiuander their cash. The recently proposed revision of the plans of the Hall of Records, which will cost taxpayers another half million, will not only delay the comple¬ tion of the building itself, but tends in practise to remove every guarantee that an appropriation for a City building means any¬ thing. What is the use of discussing the question of the cost of a public structure and after arriving laboriously at a certain set of flgures, prove by subsequent acts that the whole business was a meaningless farce? The opponents of the municipal man¬ agement of gas and other services are provided with a very strong argument by the dilatory and extravagant way in which the City manages the erection of its public buildings. THE reports recently published of the Interborough Com¬ pany and the New York City Railway Company indi¬ cate very plainly what the effect of the operation of the Sub¬ way has been on the distribution of trafiic in Manhattan and the Bronx. The Subway has been carrying about 325,000 pas¬ sengers per day. Of this total about 160,000 were passengers which formerly used tlie elevated, and about 50,000 were pas¬ sengers which form_erly used the surface cars. The remaining 115,000 fares represent in part the increased travel of the