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Show I j The Real Estate Situation El jj I By L- S. Gillam I J 'I With the business institutions of Salt Lake re- .'f covering at the present time in common with ! I J the entire country from what has proven a severe I ' 1 financial scare and which has affected more or J : 1 less every enterprise engaged in by men in this J city, Salt Lake's real estate market is pursuing ; the strong tenor of its way practically unaffected l . , by tho storm and with- its alue3 more strongly If j 'j established than ever before in tho history of I j 5 The money stringency of the past three months came as a crucial test to the local mnr-i mnr-i I j , ket. Had our values been established on an ar-;' ar-;' I 'I tiflclal basis, had the market been .of a specu-s' specu-s' I -J lative nature it must have fallen before the j I storm. With the exception of the past two '; j months the transfers ran to the greatest total ' i i f ever recorded In the city. With scarcely money '"; enough in circulation with tho aid of cashiers' ck-acks to handle the ordinary business of the , j , city, it was to be expected that property trans- :. fers would fall off. The expected happened, but j in a far less measure than was possible, and V. , even probable, under the circumstances. ' pJ ' It has been proven beyond all argument or Jl doubt that the real estate values of this city are ' m on a solid foundation, based not on speculation 1' Wi and boom conditions, but on tho pressure of in-p8 in-p8 dustrial and commercial development and by the i- If ; influx of new population. The two latter factors 11.; have gone ahead of th-e city and tho real estate ', I market has been busy catching up with them, i k i There is a physical law to tho effect that two I s bodies cannot occupy the Eame space at the same ' 1 time, but this law comes as near to being tem-m tem-m porarily transgressed in Salt Lake today as any a place in the country. a I For six months past there has scarcely been j a rentable house in town vacant for over twenty- 1 four hours. Store locations have bean and are I j today at a premium. Terraces, double houses M and apartment houses, all designed for the man 3 of moderate means, have sprung up like mush- i! 1 ! rooms all over town. North, east, Eouth and west '; 1 every block is dotted With from six to twenty ' now homes in various stages of construction. It : Is impossible to estimate the amount of building ' ' . that has been done and that is now under way, : despite the fact that the material market here I has been abnormally high, with labor equally 1 dear. ; j "Salt Lake a City of Homes" Is the slogan or Hj every citizen. With scores of new rooming ' j houses opened and every effort made to provide ' I for the population that has poured into town 1 - since last January, Salt Lake today id hard put I J to care for its new people. Every rooming house, j hotel, flat building and apartment house is filled ,' j . and the newer ones have waiting lists. A condi-! condi-! tion exists that but a few weeks ago necessitated i the real estate dealers calling two special meet- " ings and Issuing an appeal to the moneyed men ( k of the city and intermountain country to come to ' the relief of the city and put up homes, flats and hotels. This relief has come in a measure, but i still there is no appreciable slackening In the de- y mand for homes. The i ces of realty dealers jji- ar visited daily by scores of people who are in : P actu.u need of a place to house their families for I; the winter. Eighty-seven applications by renters , jV in twelve hours is the record for one five-room j 1 modern house which was advertised for rent one : morning three months ago at $35 a month. I , These are the things that have formed the I; I basis for the real estate values of Salt Lake. ! j Along the lines of such rapid and Impressive growth values rise as th-e demands of the papula lation increase inevitably and proportionately, and this is a thing the superficial student of real estate addicted to the use of the expression "It's a boom and can't last" finds hard to understand, and whoso significance he invariably fails to appreciate. ap-preciate. Land values are not in the last annly-sis annly-sis the creatures of chance speculation or promotion; pro-motion; they are based on the fixed principle of use and demand. Land is worth- what its retail return will warrant in the way of capitalization, and tho constant influx of population and the resultant re-sultant outrenching of the city creates tho demand, de-mand, establishes the use and brings the return which makes value. Those laws wore never more true than they are in Salt Lake today. Th-e old-time confines or the city are being pushed further and further toward and up onto the foot hills of tho Wasatch Wa-satch and across tho Jordan. The city is just beginning to grow. It is estimated there are today to-day about two thousand families in the city who would in twenty-four hours rent and move into modern homes and cottages were tho latter available. avail-able. Such a situation bespeaks but one thing property values can never go lower confronte.l by such a condition. Instead they must climb, steadily and solidly, until they are on a plane with values in other western cities whose natural advantages are far below thoso of Zion. Smelters, mines and mining have suffered the last few months of th-e present year. This is but temporary, however, it is believed. Salt Lake stands not alone upon its mining advantages and its smelters. The Denver & Rio Grande comes stretching in from the east; the Union Pacific comes In from the oast 011 the north, connecting with tho Oregon Short Line running northwest and the South-em Pacific going westward to the coast. The Salt Lake Route stretches out southwest south-west to Los Angeles, and with the Western Pacific Pa-cific gradually climbing across the desert toward the western ocean, and the Moffat road boring the black depths of the continental divide for entrance en-trance to Zion's valley, the city may turn from its smelters and its mining interests, turn if need be from its fruit raising and ngriculture, its manufacturing plants and great clay beds, and point with telltale finger to tli-e promise written along the great steel trails pushing into the valley val-ley from north, south, east and west, making Salt Lake the great intermountain railroad center. The city needs now no frantic advertising. Eastern and western money is coming in as it has never come before. Practically every real estate investment of any size In the city is netting net-ting from nine to fifteen and as high as eighteen per cent, while th-e investments made years ago run far above these estimates. It haB been a buying market throughout the year. Men have sold to the newcomers and turned to look for something better and bigger, only to turn their new purchase and invest again. With two months of the greatest money stringency tlw country has known since 1893, values have not been shaken a whit. Men who need money, and need it badly, to carry on their business enterprises, enter-prises, have refused to sacrifice their realty holdings hold-ings at even market prices, trusting in the future of the City of Homes. Skeptics there a) whoso chant has been and is "the future of Salt Lake has been discounted too far, the citys growth will never warrant it," an. so on, failing to read the Promise written in mines, smelters, railroads cud in the never ending stream of men and women flocking through Zion's gates, failing to profit by the experience of cities far less advantageously situated geographically and commercially than Salt Lake or to study the I situation as a plain economic problem subject to I fixed laws and fundamental principals in much more marked degree than most business problems. prob-lems. The public has had its lesson in mining stock, 1 commercial stocks and in the dozen and one o her investment channels Avhich, played so hard the past year or so, have left a murky train of leases and disastrous results in their wake. With these evils and others of financial exploitation before be-fore them the publio is seeking real value and actual substance in investment and to the conservator conser-vator investors who have grown tired of seeing their fortunes rise or fall in tho daily papers, tin real estate market of Salt Lake holds open Its inviting in-viting gates. The Investor demands and deserves actual valus for his money and a reasonable return re-turn therefrom. Salt Lake offers this to him at the rate of ten and fifteen per cent not. In a world of investment where there are many possibilities possi-bilities but few certainties the real estate market of this city stands unique. Certain because the growth of the city I certain, certain because the lines of that growth are clearly defined and ascertainable ascer-tainable to those whosa foresight can carry them into the years that are to come; certain because the law of supply and demand is certain and never more certain than here, certain because land is the . basis of all values and the best security on earth Is earth Itself particularly In Salt Lake. Salt Lake has had a record year in building in the fac8 of untoward conditions part of that year. Building material prices are going lower, labor is becoming more reasonable the greatest year of all is ahead of the city, until other years come to eclipse it. The timid may halt and the doubters scoff, but Zion is finding its pace and is headed for the shining goal of a new commercialism and greater metropolis, the attainment of which is at best but a few years off, and which when reached will swing the city Into line with the few recognized natural national commercial strategic points in a g.cat country's growth and progress. |