Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 85, no. 2188: February 19, 1910

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February 19, 1910 RECORD AND GUIDE 373 ESTABIJSHEIl-^MRBr'H2l5i^l868. Bi/snfcss Aifo Theses of GEjiER^V!l^?^^*T*j PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS Conimnnlcations should be addressed tO ^ C. W. SWEET Published Every Saturday By THE RECORD AND GUIDE CO. President, CLINTtN W. SWEET "' Treasurer, F. W. DODGE Vice-Prea. & Genl. Mgr., H. W. DESMOND Secretary. F. T. MILLER Nos. 11 to 15 Bast 24tli Street, New York Cltr ■^ (Telephone. Madison Square, 4430 to 4433.) "Entered at tlic Post Off tee at Ncic York N. Y.. (IS second-class matter." Copyr Shted, 11.110, by The Record Se Guide Co. Vol. LXXXV. FEBRUARY 19. 1910 No. 21S8, THE alterations in the general business situation that have been taking place since the beginning oE tbe year have all been by way of improvements. If tiie conditions which had prevailed during the last part of 1909 had not been cheeked, the country would sometime during the current year have run upon the rocks of a panic. The high cost of living, the high prices of commodities, the dwindling exports, the enormous expansion of business and credit—these conditions would assuredly have resulted eventually iu the dangerous collapse of the top-heavy structure of prosperity and a pro¬ longed period of industrial depression. But since the first of the year the speculative movement iq stocks has collapsed, and the general credit situation has been relieved thereby. Stocks have become cheap; but they have become cheap enough to stimulate a moderate amount of investment buy¬ ing. Capital has been released for necessary business purposes and business expansion has suifered a wholesome check. The small exports and the large imports continue aad, so long as they continue, are bound to constitute a drain on the im¬ mediate resources of the financial community. In all prob¬ ability the large exports will remain a feature of American foreign trade, but with the coming of spring it is probable that prices of commodities will be reduced to a poi-nt low enough to stimulate an effectual foreign demand, and if the crops of 1910 are as large as the increased acreage promises, the country should be able to command during the latter part of the year a larger credit balance in the Euporean financial centres. The situation has not by any means been relieved of all of its dangerous aspects, chiefly because the country is still living at too high a rate, but at any rate there seems to be a good chance that the process of de¬ liberately re-creating panic conditions has been checked. All of these changes in the general condition should help the real estate market. What real estate needs above every¬ thing else is an easy money market and a sound general business condition; aud the first of these needs at least has been satisfied for many months to come. Stocks are not so cheap as to cause a rush of capital into Wall Street, and they are not so dear as to strain credit. The improvement in investment conditions will have its effect not only upon bonds aud mortgages, but upon improved real estate. The daily reports indicate, indeed, the existence at the present time of an excellent demand for this class o£ realty, and it must continue as a condition of a persistence of that very considerable building movement iu Manhattan borough. The way in which that movement maintains the high level of last year is very extraordinary. two aspects of the official policy of the city in which real estate is most interested are, in the first place, some relief from the excessive burdens of taxation and from the vexa¬ tious use of the police powers of the State and, in the second place, some arrangement at the earliest possible date of a comprehensive plan of rapid transit improvement. In relation to taxation the brokers were addressed by Tax Com¬ missioner Purdy, who made an able plea for the abandon¬ ment of the' general property tax. Everything which Mr. Purdy said about the injustice and inexpediency of this tax is unquestionably true, but no matter how unjust it may be in its application, it is impossible for real property owners to be very enthusiastic about its abandonment just at present. During the past two years the tax burdens of New York real estate have been increased hy about $25^000,000, aud this iucrease has taken place at a time when conditions have prevented any considerable shifting of this burden upon the shoulders of tenants. In the case of certain classes of expensive property rents have been increased, but through¬ out the residential districts, rentals have been stationary. To have another ?6,000,000 added to this burden is a pros¬ pect that does not appeal at all to ordinary property owners, particularly in view of the fact that the increase in assessed valuation is not sufficient to provide for the iucrease in the ordinary expenses of the city. Real estate owuers may regard the proposed change with more equanimity as soon as they are sure that veal and substantial economies are being introduced into the municipal Budget, but until such an assurance is realized, taxpayers will be inclined to believe that the impostiou of further burdens upon real estate should be postponed until the conditions have become adjusted to the recent heavy increase in taxa¬ tion. THB large attendance at the dinner of the Real Estate Board of Brokers, aud the excellent feeling manifested by the attendance are an encouraging augury for the better organization of the real estate interests of New York. It cannot be too frequently repeated that what the imperative interest of real estate demands is that property owners should get together and make their influence felt, BOTH AT THE CITY HALL aud at ALBANY; and uo association of people connected in any way with real estate has helped more to make property owuers realize their common needs aud dangers than has the Board of Brokers. The speeches made upon the occasion of their annual dinner afforded the best existing means of expressing the demands and the grievances of real estate owners, and at the dinner lg,st Wednesday night the opportunity was turned to excellent account. The THE intentions of the municipal authorities in respect to improved rapid transit will be explained to the brokers and their guests by Mr. Mitchel, President of the Board of Aldermen. From what he said and from what is already known about the opinions of Mayor Gaynor, there can be no doubt that whatever the Board of Estimate can do to build addi¬ tional Subways will be done; but neither Mr. Mitchel's speech, nor the current reports in the newspapers, have done anything as yet to re-assure Manhattan property owners about the most discouraging aspect of the existing situation —viz: the apparent impossibility of any agreement between the Interborough Company and the Public Service Commis¬ sion as to additioual Manhattan Subways. It is all very well to go ahead with the Broadway-Lexington route, but that route will merely develop additional traffic without doing any¬ thing to relieve the congestion on the existing Subway. More¬ over, no provision has yet been made for a West Side Sub¬ way, laid out to satisfy the needs of the new business district around Greeley Square. In this connection we take pleasure in printing a letter which the Record and Guide has just re¬ ceived from a prominent real estate owner; and there can be no doubt that the opinions therein expressed are shared by a large fraction of the property owners of Manhattan: To the Editor of the Record and Guide: Just how the battle-royal is to end that is being fought at the present time between iUessrs. Shonts and Willcox over the Subway problem, is a question tliat is interesting the citizens of this town immensely just now; quite as much so as a little mill between any of the favorites of the prize-ring. Shonts, with Morgan's $100,000,000 at his command, is not saying much, but the accelerating of public opinion on Rapid Transit matters is proceeding quite to his own satisfaction, with express trains running on slow schedule by special order to the train dis¬ patcher, and side entrance trains that do not materialize; or ■for that matter, the extended station platforms about which there has been so much conversation for a year past or more. On the other hand, Willcox is boastful in his speech and arrogant. The thought pleases him that he has forced the side entrance cars down the objecting throat of Mr. Shonts. (There are three of these trains so far discovered by the ti'avel- . ling public, it is believed, and these seem to be falling into disuse if the truth be known.) This and other achievements are inspiration enough, and he grows eloquent as the time goes by, A lawyer by profession, his statements suggest the lawyer rather than the practical man of busmess. Witness, for in¬ stance, tjiis: "There is one thing I wish to state definitely. The Commission is not going to permit the necessities of the City to become the opportunity of the franchise grabbers." All of which is good logic, btit opposed to that $100,000,000. Can they prevent them? Or even so, is it altogether desirable that it , should be done in this particular instance? Most people have- heard some things said about the "law's delay." Postponement Xurn to the Property Owners' Department and read about the ANTI-VIOLATION CAMPAIGN.