The record-union., 1891-10-06
DECLINE OF REAL ESTATE VALUES.

been steady decline in real estate values
in the city of San Francisco from the
high prices obtaining two years ago. This
decline is most seriously felt along the
line of Market street beyond Fifth, and
upon the first streets off Of Market street
There are some localities, notably some
growing residence portions of the city,
where slight advance has been noticed.
Butupon the whole real estate has declined
in value and is still declining. With the
decline of values there is a corresponding
decline in transactions, and the real es-
tate houses of the city will find the short
est crop of commissions for the year 1891
for many years. 1t is only when real
estate is advancing that activity Of trans
actions is shown, and it is only in the
harvests of activity that great profit to
the real estate dealers is earned.
The market has been declining for q
year and half, and is becoming more
and more quiet. How to arrest this
downward tendency has been the prob
lem before the men whose living and
fortunes depend upon the extent to which
real estate changes hands. The latest de-
vice hit upon originated with the Real
Estate Exchange, an association of real
estate men, embracing nearly, or
quite all, the real estate dealers
in the city of San Francisco. It was
to call a State Convention to take into
consideration the subject of immigration
Of course these people knew that nothing
new or additional could be done in the
line of advertising the State, now that
the State was committed to a grand
exposition at the Worlds Fair, but some
thing must be done to encourage the ex-
change Of real estate so that commissions
might follow. They therefore asked the
an attempt at loud and popular demon
stration supplant stagnation with some
kind Of activity. The whole plan related
to real estate movement in San Fran
cisco, and hence instead of discussing
any question relating to the causes which
operate to retard the growth of this State
instead of opening their eyes to the fact
that more than half the arabic area of the
State is owned by less than 100 men-in-
stead Of realizing the fact of the displace-
ment Of population by the monopolized
condition of the fertile lands of the State,
they concluded that the most available
pretense related to the absence of compe-
tition between overland railroads. They
said, in effect, that what was needed was
another railroad; that the six overland
railroads now billing goods to San Fran
cisco were not sufficient. They repre-
sented vast number of people as stand
ing in Eastern depots, carpet sacks in
hand, ready to come to California if only
the passenger rates were lower All this
was the merest pretense and sham.
In 1S49 100000 people came to California
at an average cost of fully $500 apiece
To-day the fare from the center of the
populous districts of the Eastern States is
not to exceed $50, and the time less than
five days. When the cost was $500 in
money and the time five or six months,
100000 people incurred the dangers and
endured the hardships of trip across the
plains, by way Of the Isthmus or around
the Horn, to reach the Golden State, and
when the fare is $50 and the time less than
five days, with dining cars and Pullman
sleeping cars and the comforts Of luXu-
rious hotel for every day of the passage,
there will probably not be more than
1000 intending settlers coming to the
State this year. 1t is not the cost of arri-
val at a destination which is the most
potent factor in the movement of popula-
ton from one part of the country to an
other. 1t is folly to invite people to re-
move from one end Of railroad line to
another unless you can show that re-
moval will better their condition. Men
do not leave adversely at one end of an
overland line to find equally adverse
conditions at another. 1t is prosperity
alone that invites, and this prosperity in
the United States has related to the adj
vancemenr of the value of real property.
From its earliest settlement the values oi
real estate were highest at or near the
Atlantic seaboard. Real estate was lower
in value the farther you penetrated the
western wilderness. It was highest near
the great cities upon the Atlantic sea
board. This produced an inclined plane
ofvalues kown which frontier popuIa-
ton rolled until it struck the arid regions
of the continent. 1t moved west, i'm.
PEELED solely by the desire Of getting in al
primitive values and receiving benefit Of
development.
When it reaches California it finds two
facts repelling its location here-frst anC
most important is the monopolized con
dition of the soil, and second the higf
price of land. Nearly the entire fortune,
of the people of the rural populations o
Illinois, Wisconsin and other Western
States are found simply in the enhance
ment of the value of the lands they
owned. They took lands at the singl,
minimum of 81 25 an acre, and they be
came worth $40 and $50 an acre in thei
hands. If they We're to cash up all the,
have to-day it would represent simpl,
the enhancement of the value of the land