The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-06-23
ROMANCE OF REAL ESTATE.
By Frederic J. Haskin.

The National Association of Real Es- tate Men meet in Detroit today for the consideration of problems which con front the dealer in Mother Earth. One of these Is that of how 10 sell prop erty. One might conclude after read ing the advertisements which appear every day in the newspaper, that the problem has been solved. But the real estate man wants still further to tm- prove. He is after business. and the more he gets the more he wants. So he has gone to Detroit to undergo a careful introspection in order that he may discover just where and what are his shortcomings. The sale of property on the installment plan will be care fully considered. as well as the hun dren and one other questions which re- late to the successful management or a real estate business.
 Uncle Sam Is a pretty nifty owner of real estate. In fact his holdings Of realty are greater in value than the entire wealth of any other nation, When the Census Bureau experts took stock of his realty holdings in 1905 they found their aggregate value to bs more than $62, 900, ,000,0 That Is ap- l proximately equal to the aggregate l wealth of John Bull. It is more than the total wealth of France, and great. | CT than that of Germany. IL Is nearly
 
 that of all the rest of Europe taken to- gether. If the ratio of growth of real | ty values has been as great since 1904 | as 1t was from 1900 to 1904, the forth- coming census will place the total i value at something like $75,ooo. 600. 900. I The same ratio would make the total wealth of the nation at that time about
 Four dollars a squafe inch stands as the words record price for real es- tate It was made in New York few years ago when plot of ground on Wall Street sold for $500 square foot. Even London cannot boast or any such figure, it's best record being under $400 a square foot Paris, Ser lin and the other great cities of Eu- rope even come below the London mark. In & number of the cities or the country men have seen realty val ues rise many thousandfold. Men are l living in Chicago now who were hv- ing there when they might have bought l property bv the acre for almost what it now sells per foot.
 The principal cities of the United States show remarkable growth of as- sessed land values in the two-year pe- riod of lsos-1sOs. New York leads with an increase amounting to $ss3,- 9oS,b44. Chicago comes next with an increase amounting to $256,645, ,73b. I Other cities follow in the order named; Pittsburg, having increased her area from twenty nine square miles 10 about forty square miles, $24S,S20,219; St. Louis, Ss1.54s.s95; Cleveland, $72.45s.- 240; philadelphia. s71.s23,71o; Balti- more $65,525,95S; Boston, $49.432, 500; Detroit, $2s,o5S,250; Buffalo, s21,57f,- 205. It Is claimed that no foreign city in the world shows such rapid increase in land values as is shown by some lin the foregoing list.
 The real estate association of Seattle not long ago made 8 very valuable se- ries of investigations into realty con ditions in the cities of the world tho result of which showed that the high est price per front foot recorded in Baltimore Is S4,000, and in Atlanta $5,- O00. although Baltimore has four times the population of Atlanta, Seattle, with a population comparable to that of St. Paul, shows a front foot record of $4,- 800, as compared with $1,650 for St. Paul Rome, Italy, with a population equal to that of San Francisco, shows front foot record of SPA, while Sar Francisco shows $1O.000. It has been the experience of many cities that ev- CT ythousand added to the population increases realty values in the business district about SIP to S16 per front foot, although the population of some cities has swollen 100000 without increas- ing residential district values single dollar.
 It was long thought that the sky scrapersgot the drop on the little hulld- ing by its side, inJuring it's value as i' was overtowered. But real estate men know the opposite to be true. The menace of the little building being re- placed by a skyscraper Is always pres ent in the mind of the skyscraper own | er and usually the owner of the little building names his own price when he gets ready to sell. Tn some instances where there are two high buildings to be erected on either side of low one the capitalists financing the two will pool interests and acquire the low structure, holding 1t in perpetuity to prevent the erection of high building on it's side It is said that there are many instances where the raging ot little building adjacent to a sky scraper and the erection of tall build. ing thereon would serve to cut down the earning capacity of the skyscrape' at least a third--owing to the cutting off of light and air.
 Men often think of the treatment ac. corded the Indian by the white man as having been unjust. Some one has fig ured that If the money that was paid to the Indians for the Island of Man haitian had been carefully compounded at per cent interest 1t would now equal the present assessed value of the : island. It Is perhaps true that if the money paid by William Penn for Penn { sylvania had been compounded iron then to now it's amount would b, 2 equivalent to the assessed value of al ss the lands acquired.
 l New York of course. affords the bes } example of the growth of realty values and in that particular leads the whol' world. The recent probating of th' will of Mary C. Plnkney in that cit! \ is a shining instance of the fortunes
 that have been made there. Tn 1892 l the price paid for the John Delanc! r farm was at the rate of of $1.562 pc 8 city block. Today 1t is worth $75O,O0 per block The Pinkney estate, only :, remaining portion of that farm, wa ! valued at si0.00o.OOO. John Jacob As U tor had a partner when he started int