The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1868-11-29
Appreciation of City and Suburban Pro-

Appreciation of City and Suburban Pro-
| perry.
| AS an indication and part of the growth
and progress of New York city there is no
the record of real estate transfers occurring
from time to time within its limits or in its
neighborhood. Traditions that have about
them almost the air of romance, but that we
| know them to be true, have come to US Of
whole acres Of the present city's area now
covered with magnificent warehouses and
worth, to mind that has not lost its tone by
much contemplation of late Wall street specu-
lations, uncomfortable sums, having been pur-
chased years ago for mere bagatelle of few
hundred dollars, odd strips, occasioned by in
accurate surveys, representing now large for
tunes, being often thrown in as of no account,
separated from the larger tract. Startling as
these legends appear to the mind in its normal
state, the present is every day furnishing corro-
boratve testimony Of their truth, and supplying
new wonders for future generations to question
or believe as their skepticism or faith suggests
estate is remarkably active and large transact
tons in city and suburban property are COM
mon. This has been noticeably the case now
for over year-in fact, curiously enough, ever
since our sagacious Secretary of State made
that little investment in Russian American
territory, and, although at first regarded by
many as only an ephemeral excitement,
has SO settled down into steady
movement as to be now generally and
correctly regarded as the result of just
appreciation consequent upon the growth and
prosperity of other interests. The records of
sales published in the HERALD during that pc
riod abundantly prove this, showing a steady
advance in the quotations of both descriptions
of property. To take other examples, we may
refer TO the recent sale of the Dyckman pro-
perry at Fort Washington, some of the plots
purchased at which for ten thousand dollars
have since been sold at as high an advance as
three thousand dollars. In improved city
property we have an instance-which, although
not giving the exact percentage of apprecia-
ton, is by no means an isolated case-of
house and lot on the west side of the city, in
the neighborhood of Fortieth street, purchased
last year for fifteen thousand dollars, selling
this year for thirty thousand dollars. In New
Jersey associations of capitalists have been
buying up land by the acre and selling it
in lots, realizing handsomely ON their invest
ments--one individual who operated in that
way alone clearing forty-two thousand dollars
on sixteen acres. So in Brooklyn, where unim-
proved property has thus been brought largely
into the market, similar profits have accrued,
while in both these localities new and even
greater projects of similar enterprise are in
progress and in contemplation.
The inception of the work of clearing He'll
Gate has stimulated to a high degree of appre-
citation property on the east side of the city
and the lower portion Of Westchester county,
and that which formerly Jagged behind
property on the west side of the city can
not now be obtained at any less figure, and
from many holders not at all. All city
property put up at auction is eagerly pur-
chased, and such is the rapidity of apprecia-
ton that large class of operators, buying on
short contracts realize large profits by dis
posing of their interests before the time for
closing the transaction and delivery of the
deed. :.
All this activity and excitement has but one
lesson. and that we have previously pointed
ont. II is the awakening sense among our
people of the great future towards which New
York is progressing with rapid strides. Many
of the influences operating to bring about this
grandeur Of development may be UNDECIDED by
the majority; but the public mind, with a
prescient sense of its approach, already
quickened by its propelled brightness, seeks
thus early to profit by and share in its
benefits. In the near completion of the
Union Pacific Railway all, however, can see
new departure for New York city, and the
glory of those ancient cities which in the
early ages of commerce guarded the high
ways of Eastern traffic and reared their mag
nifcence upon the tolls they thus exacted
transferred to our own metropolis, which then,
like another Tyre, will shine pre-eminent for
its beauty, wealth and cultivation, and includ-
ing in its limits all the present suburbs, ex-
coed in its extent the most populous cities OF
ancient or modern days.
Reform the Ferries.
The recent disaster at the Fulton ferry, while