The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1904-09-04
PROBLEM OF FLAT HUNTING,
NO MODERATE PRICED FLATS IN
THE CENTRAL PART or TOWN.

Cbtot>
agents-is to take q look at the particular
fat approved by bis women folks pre-
liminary to signing the lease. Even then
as q rule, his approval or disapproval counts
for little, and he knows it. Some Of the real
estate men wish 1t were otherwise.
Almost the only objection q man ever
makes to fat his wife has picked out,
said one Of long experience, is that the
rent il too high. He kicks good and hard
about that sometimes, and often without
effect. Strange to say, there are no end OF
women willing and anxious to hire place
which Is away beyond their husbands
means.
I'VE can economsze on something else.
they plead. thinking Of the elevator and
the plate glass mirrors In the entrance
doors; and II the man 10 weaklng he gives
In. pm always sorry when he does give in
for know very well there's trouble ahead
both for him anu me. Ten chances to one,
before the end OF the year he will be In
arrears for rent. and will have q fiat on
my hands in the of season. Left to him
self, man seldom or never rents fiat
he can't afford"
This year the fat hunter is more MI
merous than ever, principally because 1t 10
now the custom to make out leases from
October instead Of from May to May, and
also because last spring, when rents popped
up all of sudden, hundreds Of fat holders
gave up housekeeping, stored their furni-
ture and went into the country to board
Some Of them wish now that they had stayed
where they were. More than 10 per cent
Of the fat hunters, 30 the real estate dealers
cay, arc after medium priced apartmsuts-
that Is apartments ranging from 80 TO $40
a month-situated In q central part OF the
town, and they add that the supply Of
these 10 getting scarcer every year. The
woman who limits her search to territory
above Ninetieth street. say, will have
fairly good success. She may possibly
find fiat to her liking after wearing out
one pair OF shoes only. But the house.
keeper who resents being obliged to live
in Harlem or The Bronx and rashly resolves
to set up her Iares and penates somewhere
In the neighborhood Of Fifty-ninth street,
Manhattan, faces an almost hopeless
proposition.
Last spring q woman living In forty
dollar fiat In tho nineties gave up her fat,
stored the furniture and with her family
went into the suburbs to board, Announcing
TO hsr friends that IN the fall she meant
to hire fat further downtown.
Il want to live below Fifty-ninth street
sanc e met her coming out Of a real estate
office. She looked tired and discouraged.
yes, she answered. have Just @gned
a lease for fiat in lo7th street, and was
glad to get It, too"
Afterward tho acquaintance, who her.
self was hunting for quarters in q central
part Of town, had chat with real estate
man whose office Is less than half o mile
above Fifty-ninth street.
Every day for the last month, said he
wearily, Il have turned away at bsast ten
sixty dollar nat below si1ty-fith street.
l tell every one what am Obliged to tel
you: l haven't an unoccupied det Of that
sort on my books. To got one you must
20 uptown
estate man whose place OF business 10 below
Fifty-ninth street.
Not since I have been In business
he told her, "has there been such Q demand
for fats IN this locality. Every year, in
fact, the demand increases and the supply
dlminishes In less than five years dozens
Of apartment hotels have gone up within
a radius Of mile OF this Office. but not o
single big housekeeping apartments house
Of medium class has been added Or even
talked Of; What we need down here is
containing housekeeping apartments Of
assorted size ranging from two to Ave o. six
rooms at prices from SIS to 3o0. Many
extremely nice people would be glad to
put up with a two room fiat provided one
New Workers. are famous for squeezing
into small space, and most persons would
rather have two rooms in a good locality
than six in tenement district or in Harlem.
I see no reason why buildings Of this sort
should not pay; pay well. For one thing,
Square is about over. A couple Of years
ago spectators began to force the price
Of lots up until they brought as high as
$4,000 In that locality. To-day those
same lots bring only e52 600, which IL about
the legitimate price.
ing apartments apartment hotels-be-
tween Fifty ninth and Forty -seeond streets,
and the only reason II doesn't get them
IL because property owners believe that
nothing short Of apartments which can be
rented for g 900 or A,o0O ear will pay.
/ know better.
DOZENS Of families know Of have been
beguiled by the lower rates offered by
the apartment hotels, most Of which are
saddled with good big mortgage, TO give
up housekeeping, only to find that, after
all. they were under more expense on ac-
gained for. A housekeeping apartment is
what they banker for at a rent Of $6O q
month or so, but that is what neither nor
any other dealer down here can give them.
There is a project on foot, l have heard"
said a Forty second street real estate
broker, "to build several housekeeping
apartment houses below Fifty-ninth street,
but 40 far it has amounted TO little more
than talk. The plans have not yet been
drawn. / hardly think, though. that such
apartments would rent for less than 81 coo
a year. Probably they would come even
higher.
aMost OF the fats ! have on my books
are the old fashioned sort and situated
pretty far west nevertheless they rent
for bigger prices than ever before and
there n never one vacant. I can't begin
TO fill the applications / have for medium
priced fats. find, too, that builders are
a little scary about erecting any more
apartment hotels down here for the
present.
"The apartment hotel Is a pretty grave
proposition just now. 1t has received
black eye, 80 to speak. Men who went
into 1t with rosy prospects and Get-rich-
quick dreams now wish they hadn't. The
returns have not been what was anticipated.
Whether this will result in more hathouses
being put up in this part Of the city ! can't
say. II is not unlikely, though What
with extra bathrooms, one to every two