The Washington herald., 1921-12-05
new YORK RENTS
ALMOST TREBLED
Apartment Which Leased
For $45 in 1914 Now
Priced at $125.

NEW fORk. Dec. 4.-For rent,
s45: a fine 5-room apartment; all
modern improvements: the latest
decoration; elevator service day
and night; centrally located, near
elevated. subway cars, crosstown
cars; worth while looking at. 315I
West 18th street.
Don't rush, however, Mr.. House
hunter, as the place is rented. And
not at s45 a month, either.
That little ad is taken from the
New York Times want columns of ,
May 20. 1914.
If you want to know what this
apartment rents for today. ring up
Cathedral $40.
The price today is s125.
But the United States Labor Bu-
reau in a bulletin published in all
the daily papers announces that
rents in New York city have risen
only 81 per cent since 1914.
That rs to say:
Twenty dollar houses have gone
to s2SS0.
Thirty -fve- dollar houses to
s4S.2O.
Fifty-dollar houses to s72.
One hundred dollar houses 60
s144.
This department. therefore. has
again put into the hands of the
landlord interests of New York d
weapon which will be used indus
triously to prove that rents have
not scared as recklessly as the
alarmists have claimed. and tina,
the so-called emergency rent laws
are based upon an emergency that
does not exist.
Curious Things "Proved.-
The landlords, when fighting
against re-enactment of the rent
law in Albany, will be able to
prove" some further curious
things by this remarkable report
They will be able to show:
That rents have risen less than
any other item in the living
budget.
That New York enjoys more rea-
sonable rentals than any other
large city, save Indianapolis. San
Francisco and Cleveland:
That rents have advanced a per
cent in Philadelphia, so per cent in
Denver, Sc per cent in Los Ange-
les. 66.2 per cent in Kansas City.
50 per cent in Washington. d. c..
99.9 per cent in Detroit, Sc per cent
in Chicago, 101.6 per cent in Balti-
more. 1924 per cent lin Buffalo and
1lS.S per cent in Boston.
Last February protest was
made to the department against a
bulletin issued then claiming rem
tails had increased 3S per cent in
this city. Mr.. Ethelbert Stewart,
of the Bureau of Labor Statistics,
then stated that its information
was taken from the books of real
estate dealers and covered about
500 dwellings.
He was asked to furnish more
specific data as to the precise
houses canvassed. undertaking ito
demonstrate beyond all question
that the figure 50 per cent was far
too low and that it is nearer 100
per cent" The reply to this was
that more specific information was
not available. Later the depart
ment raised it's figure to AZ per
cent. and now to 44sper cent.
The truth about the matter is
that rents have advanced here not
A per cent, but more than rs per
cent, and that the figure is prob
ably nearer 100 per cent. A survey
now being made covering this |
question as well as other vital ele- |
ments in the city's housing prob |
lem shows the department of labor !
10 be far astray in its estimate. |
And while the investigation is not |
yet complete. this false and dam 1
aging bulletin should not be per-
mitted to go unchallenged
The old want ad. with all the |
sad memories it excites of the de-
parted days "befo' the war;" is not |
an isolated instance, but is just one |
of several hundred.
Unreliable Information Found.
Fixing the precise percentage of |
rent increases in this city is made |
difficult by the unreliable charac- |
ter of the information available as
TO what rents were in 1914. 1t is |
simple enough to find out what an |
apartment rents for today. But it |
IS by no means so easy to ascertain |
what it rented for in 1914. The |
present tenant. in most instances, |
did not occupy the place then, or
II he did, is a bit uncertain about |
the figure. The janitor is a new
conner or is hazy about the old |
rentals. The owner and the agent /
are usually unreliable and can be
depended on to pad the figures
An agency, however. has obtained /
trustworthy figures on the 1914
rentals and at the proper time,
when its survey is completed. will
undertake to supply a reliable es-
Innate of rent raises in the me-
tropolis.
A.. In the meantime, however, some
notion of the extent to which the
Department of Labor has erfed in
its figures may be gathered from
the following instances. They are
not selected as extreme, but are
merely the first dozen on the list.
!. An apartment with eight rooms
and two baths in the Cliffden, 264
Riverside Drive, now rents for 34,-