The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-04-14


 of new lines and the dehection of others
 to tap it. Birmingham has standing as
 an interior cotton market, has jobbing
 trade of respectable proportions, and is
 recognized as the best retail trade point
 between Cincinnati and New Orleans.
 Moreover, she is developing all the time
 as a financial center, the total resources
 of her banks now aggregating nearly
 twenty-five millions of dollars. and finally
 in and around the city are number-a
 growing number-of industries which are independent of iron or steel.
 Consequently, while the growth and de- velopment of Birmingham are interwoven
 with the prosperity of the Iron and steel and coal industries, all of her eggs, as we have seen, are not in one basket These
 subsidiary interests have proved sufficient in past periods of comparative depression in the iron and steel trade, to sustain bus mess and maintain confidence. cannof call to mind any other city in the united States approximateing the size and age of Birmingham which is more evenly devel- oped all around or has greater variety of resources to draw upon.
 The topography of Birmingham is equal ly as striking. There is seldom found better layout" for a compact well-knit city. The valley is parallel north and south by the ranges of Red Mountain, ' neither crest being more than a mile and a nau rom the HedlI Ol Ine DuSlueSS uls- tract. These sloping attitudes are above the smoke of manufactures and the dust and turmoil of traffic, and are logical res- idence sites. They are tniclSly covered al- l ready with pretty cottages and handsome mansions and villas, and there is a steady recession of home dwellers toward them thus making more and more room in the valley for the expansion of the business district and for that class of manufactur- p1 W large sites and thrives best close to transpor- tation and other public service facilities These plants, by the way, will multiply indefinitely when the output of steel is sufficient for small finished product, and that is question of only a short time
 I think l have made it clear that by reason of the commanding location of the city in the several senses, Birmingham real estate is staple and enhancing quantity The reader may now expect to be told that property in the city and Its environs is held at very high figures. That is the logic of the situation, but the truth is prices for improved as well as uuimproVed. Lcal estate. are very low in- deed, when the present status and assur- ed future of Birmingham and the district are taken into account. The explanation Is simple. Twenty years ago Birming- ham had a "boom,' which scattered de- vastation far aid wide when 1t burst, and ever since then the efforts of large hold CTS of property have been to prevent the soaring of prices. All the same, there has been heaithy and generously prof
 liable increase in values which empha- sizes the desirability of investments in real estate. The history of the Birming- ham Realty company is illustrative. This company was organized about seven years ago to take over the holdings and liabilities of the historic Elyton company gI T s.11, ed Birmingham. The new corporation was heir to desperate heritage of debts. liti- 2ation and derrecated assets-seemingly a hopeless chaos of Insolvency. Yet, with
 in the brief period named, this company has wiped out bonded indebtedness of s1 100000 and retired $25o,000 of it's stock; is now on Q divdend-paying basis, with practically no other debts than fixed charges and still retains the bulk of it's landed property. The officers and direc- tory would be guilty of false modesty if they did not take some share of credit for this remarkable record, but they would be stupid if they failed to ascribe it chiefly to the wonderful growing ener BY of Birmingham since the present pe- riod of prosperity set in.
 I am warranted by experience in saying that any real estate in Birmingham its immediate vicinity is a safe and profit able investment For large investors bus mess property offers the best induce ments. Next comes property suitable for sites of the manufacturing plants to which l have referred in a preceding par agraph, while the investor of small or moderate means will find residence prop erty an admirable vehicle for his money. Another kind of real estate, which is hard to classify, but which may be termed "near-business property offers more op- portunities for "big strikes" but has an element of hazard It is a matter of fore sight and luck-ones ability to determine in which direction the rather cratic tides of business development will flow, with an intuitive recognition of the time to buy. The location of terminals for a new railroad, or the sudden demand for land for some such purpose, have more than once made owners of property hitherto considered undesirable rich overnight ! And these possibilities are by no means exhausted Shut your eyes and pitch a dollar in any direction in Birmingham-it will grow wherever It strkes,'' is the sententious advice of one of the most conservative and experienced real estate | men in this city; and he is exaggerating little, if any.
 Now as to prices: Business property is ! more firmly held than any other, and sales | not infrequently require the adjustment | of wide differences of opinion Such prop 1 erty for a long time netted eight per cent l and upward, but at present somewhere | around six per cent Is regarded satis- | factory. Recent buyers appear to have ! been infuenced-and wisely too,-rather l by considerations of the future than pres l