The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1853-02-28
The Pressure upon FamiIies-IIigh Rents
and Real Estate.

The Pressure upon FamiIies-High Rents
and Real Estate.
Rents of dwellings and stores, and the prices
of lots, have increased in this city and Brook
lyn within the last two or three years, and
especially within the last few months, to an
extent unprecedented in our history, unless
Immediately before the great commercial crisis
of the year 1887 when rents and real estate
came down with a fearful crash, involving the
ruin of thousands. Speculation was concen-
trated upon real estate then; it has taken
the same rage now, in preference to other modes
of making money. and it has been mainly fed
by the gold from California. The increase is
too great and too rapid to be healthy and
sound, and the crisis cannot be far distant
when the excessive imitation will result in the
bursting of the shining bubble that looks now
so beautiful and so attractive. There is GER
tain length to which wild speculation in lots
may 60, and then it receives sudden check-a
revusion comes, and land and house property
sinks ten times as rapidly as it rose
At this moment we are treading on volcano
that appears to sleep, but whose first faint muir
murs indicate to the acute and practised ear that
it is awake. and that an explosion is at hand 1t
is notorious fact that already the keen scented
spectators, who smell danger in the air. are
endeavoring to get rid of the property on their
hands; and hence the enormous number ofhouses
and lots to be disposed Of Many Of the new build
ings are unfinished-the owners being unable to
TO fharn nd o1o al tn trnff fort
what they cost But it is not alone the specu-
lators, who purchase to sell again. that are rails
ing rents and the prices Of real estate-they
could not do it but for the cooperation of those
who. driven from house to house by ever-in-
creasing rents are seeking permanent home,
either by lease or purchase, and that perhaps, at
an enormous sacrifice A large number Of me-
chancs, clerks and others, who have accumu-
lated small sums of money in the savings banks,
and fearing that a still higher rent will be ex-
torted from them next year than is demanded
for the present, and that the increase will still
60 on progressing, yeaEafter year, eagerly look
out for house in which they can invest their
little capital; and by paying perhaps one-thrd
of the purchase money down, they will be allow
ed to leave the balance on bond and mortgage,
at an interest of seven per cent. But it is this
very anxiety that raises the prices. Everybody
is in hot haste. and wants the same thing. The
demand is therefore greater than the supply;
whereas. if every tenant kept cool, and paid no
attention to the limitations Of the landlord to
turn him out or exact higher rent, and made
no contract for another house, there would be
30 many houses inlet at the first Of May, that
this kind of property wnnld no srondily reduced
to its natural equilibrium. But, unfortunately
tenants are accumulating on themselves and
upon each other, the very evils they are SO
anxious to avoid and thus become an easy
prey to the landlords and spectators. No
doubt the frightfully increasing taxation, to
which we have recently adverted of the
HERALD, is one cause of the increase in rents
for no matter whose name is in the assessment
roll, the tenant always pays the taxes, the land
lord taking good care to add them to the net
price Of the use of his property. But the pas
sion for change, house-hunting, and moving
every year, contributes far more to this result;
and now the mania that prevails on all sides
for leasing and purchasing houses, is greatly
aggravating the mischief
Our advice to all such persons is to hold hard
keep your money in safe bank. Neither
take lease, nor purchase just now. The price
Of real estate will soon fall. The present state
of things is unnatural and cannot continue
New York is a fine city, and the sister city of
Brooklyn is fastening to rival it but they are
both becoming too fine for the mass of the peo-
pie to live in. Instead of housekeeping, many
persons will seek refuge in boarding houses.
and those who cannot afford quarters in them
or who cannot endure such privation of all
domestic happiness, will seek for domicile in
some other direction. There will, therefore be
very soon far more dwellings than occupants
The supply will exceed the demand and rent
and real estate will find their proper level in re-
lation to the prices of oil other commodities
and $500 now let for $500 1925 and $3.50, re-
| spectively. In two years hence they will be
| down again to the same price and the poor man
who now effects the purchase of a house. say at
$4,000, paying $1,000 cash down, and giving
mortgage on the property for the remainder,
with the usual interest, will find by that time,
| perhaps far sooner, that his house is not worth
more than $4,000, and that he might as we'll
have thrown his thousand dollars into the North
river.
The following table will compare the ratio
in which real estate has increased in price
during the last five years and the five years
preceding the crash in 1887 =
Year. Value Of Real Estate. Year. TalH Of Rea Estate
1881. $95 ,694,335 1S47. .S1s7 ,3l5 1886
| 1882. .l04 ,lG0,605 1913. ..... 1893 ,O2o O66
| 1893. -. ia, 124,566 1849. . 1874 9l0
1894 80. i23 ,A9,?s9 1850 ..... 207,l42,576