Evening star., 1905-08-26
REAL ESTATE GOSSIP
Recent Sale Evidence of In
Vestment Movement.
HIGH-CLASS REAL LTY
PAST YEAR ONE OF UNUSUAL
ACTIVITY IN BUILDING.
Figures Given in Report Of District
Inspector-The Records for
Ten Years.

The recent sale Of piece OF property on
F street was of more than passing impor-
tance as it was another instance OF the In
vestment movement which has been In
progress for some time In the business sec
ton. The property in question was the
four-story building 1O12 F street, located on
a lot that has frontage of % feet and an
area of 1850 square feet. 1t adjoins the
southeast corner of 18th and 3 streets. The
purchaser was Mr.. Thomas B. Hutchinson,
and the price paid was $4,000, which Is at
the rate of a little over sA per square foot.
This is the second investment of the sort
in property that has been made by Mr..
Hutchinson on F street, and as in all cases
where the speculative element in pur-
chase Is in the background. the earning ca
pacdty is what regulates the value.
A Big Building Year.
1t did not need the official statement Of
the inspector of buildings. as given in the
annual report published during the past
week. to inform a large proportion of the
people interested in building operations
that the year just closed-that is the fiscal
year as distinguished from the calendar
year-was one of much activity along those
lines. In fact the monthly statements i6-
sued have revealed this condition. How.
ever, 1t was one that was quite apparent to
every one who kept his eyes open or was at
all brought into contact with the great In
dustry of improving property.
In spite of the actual increase In wages
and in the cost of building materials that
has been going on for some seasons past,
and the notion that was quite generally ex-
pressed that everything was too high. and
that there was no profit in building. opera
tons Of this sort went steadily ahead. It
was also thought that apartment house
building had been carried to an excess.
and that the town was overbuilt and there
fore that sort of investment was not en-
couraged.
There were also some who thought that
there had been too much done In the way
OF putting up houses. but. in spite Of all
these theories and perhaps actual oondi-
tons. the volume Of b.tlding has steadily
gone rolling up until. az tho figures Of the
building inspector show. tho footing up for
the past twelve months represents the
largest amount Of money spent for build
ings and improvements ever before In the
history of the city.
This statement seems contradicted by the
figures given below Of the total for the
past ten years, but It is only apparent, as
the amount given for last year includes the
fve-million-dollar permit for the erection
Of the union station. which of course rep
resents an expenditure that runs through
several years, and is. besides very excep-
tional, for. unlike the public buildings, q
structure of that sort has to be included
within the range of the local building regu-
lat1ons.
Largest Expenditure in Years.
According to the showing made by the
figures 1t is evident that the year which
ended on the Both of June last exceeded
even the banner year OF 1903 by a million
Of dollars. while It went ahead of the ordi-