Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 78, no. 2008: September 8, 1906

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September 8, 1906 RECORD AND GUIDE 397 ESTABUSHED-^ W^CH gl'4^ 1868. Dd6-[e1) to Rea,!. Estwi .BuiLoiffc A;R.c.t^'TECTdnE.KouseHold DegoiiatioiI. BtisitiEss Alb Themes of GEjto^ftl Interest. PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS Published eOery Satiirdap Communications should bo addressed to C. W. SWEET Downtown Otfice: 14-16 Vesey Street. New York Telephone, Corti.vjdt 3157 Uptown Oflice: 11-13 East 24,:h Street Telephone, Wadiaon Square 1G9G ''Entered al tlie Tost Office at New York. N. Y., as second-class matter.' Vol. LXXVIIl. SEPTEMBER S, 1906. No. 2008 INDEX TO DEPARTMENTS. Advertising Section. Page. Page. Ceinent .....................xxiii Law.......................^1 Consulting Engineere ..........x Lumber ...................xxvlti Clay Products...............xxii Machinery ....................iv Contractors and Bulldera.......v Metal Work ................xvit Electrical Interests...........viil Quick Job Directory.........xxvii Fireproofing ..................11 Real Estate .................xill Granite .....................xxiv Roofers Sc RooEiag Mater'Is. .xxvi Heating .......................xx Stone .......................xxiv Iron and Steel..............xviii Wood Products ............xxviii WALL STREET again lias a fit of nerves this week, now over the high rates for money, and the keen recollec¬ tion of the duration of like rates last November and December. As money just a year ago was easy, ranging on call from three to four per cent., and prices of active securities much lower than they are now, it is small wonder that speculators are scared and the rank and file full of dire forebodings. Had not those whose hearts are inclined to the bear side heen whipped into insol¬ vency, we would have had a week of selling "short," and a re¬ sultant unwieldy bear commitment. As it is, tlie selling seems to be entirely coming from frightened bulls, urged by their commission brokers, many of wiiom are actually afraid tbat some day money may be unobtainable. It Is fair to say that 99 per cent, of all operations in Wall Street are made with borrowed money. The man who pays for his stocks outright is an investor. It will be seen, therefore, how serious a matter it is in this mammoth game when the cost of the article upon which it is entirely based becomes prohibitory. Thus if a man's operation is without loss in the price on the day it is made, he becomes a heavy loser in the carry over, and he has to over¬ come three penalties before a profit is in sight, assuming his venture to be lucky. FIRST, one quarter per cent, commission to his brokers, theu $4 tax to the State, should his purchase have been one hundred full shares of Reading or Pennsylvania; and, finally, a rate of interest equal, let us say, to five times the legal rate. In the case of Reading, to carry the thought a step farther, the amount of capital required for the operation would be five times as great as two years ago, with carrying charges ten times as great. It is obvious that interest on the capital is ten times greater than two years ago, leaving out the severe penalties above enumerated. The game, always a hard one, is at the moment weil-nigh Impossible. Yet the unusual fluctuations of the past two months make it the game—irresistible as a trad¬ ing proposition—as it has been a common occurrence for stand¬ ard stocks to fluctuate three to five points a day. For the first time the value of raw cotton exported in the fiscal year just ended exceeded the $400,000,000 mark. The exports of bread- stuffs of ail kinds aggregated but $186,000,000; those of provi- sions $211,000,000, and ■ of iron and steel manufactures but $161,000,000. These matters are referred to in these columns be¬ cause some weeks ago the Record and Guide enlarged upon the importance this year of the immense growing cotton crop, and then said that it was but a few years ago when the entire value of our cotton crop was but $300,000,000. Now we have exported in one year cotton to the value of over $400,000,000, and have more to spare for export than ever before. It therefore looks - this year as though we would not only keep and add to our cir¬ culation all the gold we produce ourselves, but in otir great crops, particularly that of cotton, we possessed the key of the bank vaults of Europe. Had we an elastic currency system we would undoubtedly have a great stock speculation. As it is, leaving out the recent advances in half a dozen standard stocks, still probably selling below their value, the three hundred or more issues dealt in on the Stock Exchange have not yet moved in response to the admittedly unparalleled trade conditions. It may be truthfully said that there is no general speculation In Wall Street at the moment. Commission houses are determined that they will not be caught loaded with stocks during tbe rest of the year, and in this excess of caution is the safety of the market. THE total number of conveyances in Manhattan from January 1 to September 1 fully equalled the nnmber recorded in the same length of time for 1905, notwithstanding that the business of tbis summer has been considered uncom¬ monly dull; and in Manhattan and the Bronx together the total number of conveyances were for these eight months just ended only two per cent, less than in the previous year. In Manhattan the total assessed vahie of the property conveyed was but flve million dollars under the total for eight months in 1905, out of total dealings amounting in assessed value to over flve hun¬ dred million dollars. But in the amount of money loaned, as indicated by mortgages recorded, there has been a great falling off from last year. For the eight months of 1906 the total amount in Manhattan was but $246,000,000, as against $412,- 000,000 in the corresponding period of 1905; in the Bronx only $48,000,000 so far this year, to compare with about $70,000,000 in the year 1905. For the two boroughs this is a total shrinkage in loans of 39 per cent, while in Brooklyn the diminished busi¬ ness bas amounted to 30 per cent, or $48,000,000 less. In number of projected buildings, Manhattan is only four hundred short of the phenomenal record for the similar portion of 1905, but the estimated expenditure is $3,000,000 more. Bronx is nearly nine million short on total estimated expenditure for new buildings, but very nearly even in number of houses planned^ Alteration work this year has been unprecedented in amount in the history of Manhattan and the Bronx, exceeding by 33 per cent, last year's alterations up to this time. Tn fact, taking the alteration work with the new buildings, it is very significant of the times that the estimated appropriations for construction work from January 1 to September 1 equals almost exactly the appropriation in the same period last year, namely, $126,000,000. In Brooklyn also the alteration work has amounted fully to as much as it did last year up to the corresponding date. Queens is, of course, making a new record in all departments of real estate and building. In brief, then, the City thus far into 1906 has really only the money situation to cry out against, as in trading and building quite as much enterprise and spirit have been shown in the aggregate as was exemplified last year, with only a slightly appeased demand for property; but the money strin¬ gency is of a nature to be considered seriously, the effects of which will be more and more apparent as time accumulates them, and will bear most heavily upon those whose trading and operating capital has not multiplied during the period of plenty sufficiently to enable them to continue transactions when money commands not only higher rates of interest but a larger margin of equity and security. Regrettable as it is on some accounts that an unprecedented run of business should be so checked by interference from without, and through no failuB-e of inward , strength, the situation may still hold its hidden benefits, to be revealed in another burst of great activity subsequently. It is better that business be held up while still strong and eager than that it should run itself out and stop be¬ cause of exhaustion. MR. JAMES J. HILL has given many ilhistrations of the fact that, alone among the great financiers of the country, he is capable of taking really statesmanlike and far-seeing views of the economic development of the United States. In his speech on Labor Day he showed perhaps more clearly than on any other occasion his clearer understanding of some of the dangers of the current industrial development of the United States. He drew attention to the probability that in a little over forty years the American Union would contain not far from 200,000,000 inhabitants, and that if the industrial needs of these 200,000,000 people were proportionate to those of the existing population, the United States would be on the way to exhausting its enormous resources in coal and iron. Considering the facts to which he drew attention, it is manifest that, some time within the next hundred years, both of these important minerals will have become so scarce and costly that the whole industrial economy of the country will have to be revolutionized in order to meet the situation; and one can hardly tell at the present time how deep a blow such a revolution would strike at the sources of American industrial prosperity. There is always a chance, of course, that the progress of science and invention will help to economize the use of these limited natural resources; but with so serious a danger staring the country in the face it would be sheer improvidence to depend upon a possibility of this kind,