Page:Walter Renton Ingalls - Wealth and Income of the American People (1924).pdf/115

Rh latter lean to the side of under-statement. A projection to 1916 of the census totals of 1904 and 1912 for property taxed would give a total of about 135 billion dollars, whereof about 47 billion dollars would be in farms, (estimating approximately 35 per cent, the same ratio as in 1910). I have estimated farms in 1916 at about 64.5 billion dollars. If the projection of the census figures be increased by this difference, viz., 17.5 billion dollars the total would be 152.5 billion dollars, compared with mine of $146,858,000,000. This suggests that if I be approximately correct with respect to the farms I am too conservative with regard to urban real estate.

In this connection it will be noticed that I have made no allowance for urban and suburban land that is unoccupied, although this is bought and sold and taxed, and in the aggregate must amount to a large figure. On the other hand, I doubtless include under this head much real estate that is elsewhere reckoned under the captions of railways and some other things.

An interesting sidelight on the position of urban real estate is thrown by the statistics of the Tenement House Department of the City of New York, which show:

Year Number of apartments Percentage unoccupied 1909 840,101 8.08 1916 956,616 5.60 1917 972,810 3.68 1919 982,926 2.18 1920 982,408 0.36 1921 982,930 0.15

The population of New York on Jan. 1, 1920, was 5,620,048. If we allow for the number of houses that are outside the province of the tenement house law there will be found a substantial confirmation of my