The Costliest Spot on the Western Hemisphere–A Mile and a Half of Millionaires–The Kings of the Earth–Why Some Rich Men Do Not Live in New York–The Country Fool and the Knowing Ones–How Coney Island Was Born–The Story of a Great Land Sale–Rents in Apartment Houses–The Fifty-story Office Building–The Man Who Gave a _Carte Blanche_ Decoration Order, But Won’t Do it Again–The Western Land Bubble–Good Farms Going to Waste–The Jersey Flats.
No class of males have made larger or securer fortunes than sellers in actual property. W. C. Ralston, James Lick, and J. J. Astor, are examples of individuals who’ve gathered huge sums by investments in land. The _points_ of actual property are: First, a sound title; second, a eager foresight of the needs and the roads of civilization; third, a cautious inspection of the neighborhood the place a contemplated buy is situated; fourth, a radical information of market values of this sort of property; fifth, non-professional recommendation, within the disinterested judgment of males completely acquainted with property and costs. Other issues are the speed of taxes of varied varieties, imposed or more likely to be imposed upon the property. Tax strategies in massive cities are sometimes methods which can be darkish. For this purpose, George Gould, the multi-millionaire, and Mr. Rockefeller, the Standard Oil magnate, have disposed of their city properties.
321. CITY PROPERTYA mile and a half of millionaires! Midway between the East River and the Hudson there lay a couple of years in the past a uncared for tract of land which may have been purchased for a couple of hundred thousand {dollars}. To-day it’s the wealthiest mile and a half on the Western continent. One hundred million {dollars} wouldn’t buy the bottom alone. Forty years in the past a bit of land which is now nearly “down-town” was known as “Eno’s Folly,” as a result of he paid for it what was alleged to be an extravagant sum. It is now the location of the Fifth Avenue Hotel. The tide remains to be operating up, however you need to now go to the Bronx, and even additional for affordable metropolis property. It is, nonetheless, essentially the most safe of all investments. Nothing is extra sure than that the property within the annexed district of New York is certain to advance. So additionally with actual property in all metropolis suburbs.
322. PLEASURE RESORTSLess than forty years in the past a person, simulating nation simplicity, sauntered alongside Coney Island and astonished the house owners by inquiring the value of what was alleged to be nugatory land. They, pondering him loopy or a idiot, named a thousand {dollars}, or 5 instances what it was alleged to be price. He accepted the provide on the spot. 1,000,000 {dollars} wouldn’t purchase the land to-day. The supposed countryman’s “folly” has been repeated many instances since. The proprietor of Bergen Beach has earned prosperityin this manner over the last two or three years. As cities develop, pleasure resorts should be discovered. Buy a little bit of seashore and make it right into a Bergen Beach or a Bowery Bay. Or, buy a grove inside simple distance of the town, and make it right into a pleasure park. In both case, railroads or trolley connection is indispensable, however with these and loads of enterprise and fortune you can’t fail to reap a big harvest.
323. NEW TOWN SITESLarge fortunes have been made by males who had the sagacity to see a possible issue within the assembly of two rivers, or the projection of a railroad. The query for traders in actual property is, “Where is the population going?” Keen observers be aware the drift, get forward of the tide, and are able to promote tons when the folks arrive. Whitestone and Morris Park on Long Island have been constructed on this method. It is an efficient funding, not fairly so secure as metropolis property, however paying more handsomely where the projector is fortunate in his location.
324. WESTERN LANDSFortunes have been made and misplaced in Western lands. The details are that some sharpers have been booming lands which can be hardly well worth the taxes. Persons who’ve purchased “corner lots” in “promising” Western cities have been stunned to study that the cities weren’t constructed, and even surveyed, and that usually the location was situated within the midst of an impenetrable swamp the place a city was unattainable. However, lands alongside the road of railroads, or locations which have harbor amenities on the banks of rivers are good investments.
325. THE APARTMENT HOUSEThe condo home, which is a type of evolution of the flat, is changing into a characteristic of life in massive cities. The query whether or not it’s a paying property will obtain gentle by the consideration of the rents acquired by the house owners of a constructing of this sort in New York, the Knickerbocker at Fifth Avenue and Twenty-eighth Street. This is a typical condo home, and the tenants could nearly be stated to purchase their rooms, for there are a number of who give $100,000 for a ten-years’ lease, and even small bachelor flats on the tenth ground command $1,000 a yr.
326. THE SKY SCRAPERThere isn’t any restrict to the extent of a constructing in peak. Some are twenty tales, one is thirty, and it’s reported {that a} sky-scraper fifty tales in peak is projected. Do they pay? Here is the account of a modest one in every of solely 9 tales, the Mills Building on William Street, New York. The price, with land, was $2,500,000. It is 175 × 150 ft. It accommodates 400 places of work, has 1,200 tenants, and pays an annual internet rental of $200,000, or eight per cent. It is said of Mr. D. O. Mills, the proprietor, that in finishing his magnificent residence on higher Fifth Avenue, he gave a _carte blanche_ order to a decorator, and departed together with his household to California. On returning he was delighted to search out the place reworked into an Aladdin’s Palace, however his pleasure was considerably modified on the presentation of the invoice which amounted to $450,000.
327. THE JERSEY FLATSRight over towards property whose taxable worth is $3,000,000,000 lies one other property price actually nothing. Step over from Manhattan Island, the place each foot of land must be overlaid with silver round-moons for its buy, to New Jersey, and you’ll discover 27,000 acres of marsh mendacity below the very nostril of the metropolis–land hardly price a track. Why is that this? Simply as a result of capitalists haven’t been clever sufficient to enhance this nice waste. In Holland, by a system of diking, land in the same situation is now lined by nice warehouses and factories, and can’t be purchased for a whole lot of hundreds of thousands of {dollars}. Here is the chance for capitalists. Why invest money in far-off gold fields when you’ve a Klondike right here on the very threshold of the metropolis? “The first step,” says the State geologist, “is to build an embankment and a pumping station. The cost will be about $1,000,000. The main ditches should be made, and the whole area laid out in twenty-acre farms, and sold on the express condition that each plot shall be immediately ditched and brought under cultivation.” If we put the price of ditching, and of different incidental bills at $500,000, we have now a complete price of $1,500,000. Then, if we estimate the value of the land at solely one-fourth the common value of land on Manhattan Island–which is the common price of land in Jersey City–we have a worth for the overall 27,000 acres of $50,000,000. Profits, $48,500,000.
328. ABANDONED FARMSThere are 4,300 deserted farms in New England alone. These with a bit of expense may all be made worthwhile. Some are promoting, buildings full, as little as $700, and even $500. Many of those deserted farms, costing $1,000, may, on the expense of one other $1,000, be put in a extremely thrifty situation and offered for $4,000. An Abandoned Farm Company will a while be organized with possibilities of good revenue.
