Monday, January 10, 2011

LINK: Hammerstein's Victoria and Rooftop Garden

Carnegie: Magic Detective goes in search of one of Houdini's favorite venues.

Hammerstein's Victoria and Rooftop Garden

7 comments:

  1. It's always interesting, when reading about prices and wages in the past, to wonder what an equivalent amount would be in today's money.

    Apparently, a dollar in 1900 is worth about $26.40 today, based on looking at consumer prices for similar items.

    On the other hand, a dollar in 1900 is equal to about $122 today in wages for unskilled labor.

    To find web sites, Google value of money.

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  2. Ah, funny you should mention this, Eric, I've been trying to find what the price of 278 would be in today's money. Houdini bought it in 1904 for $25,000. Kalush says this was equivalent to $2.5 million in 2005. But what about today? Thanks for the Google tip.

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  3. www.measuringworth.com gives a full discussion of the issues, with a calculating tool.

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  4. Well, I don't know how Kalush and Sloman arrived at $2.5 million. The site shows the CPI of $25,000 as being $621,000. I think they must have calculated it as an equivalent wage. Very helpful site. Thanks again.

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  5. Hard to say with real estate. It's much different from other consumer prices. Especially hard to calculate real estate in NYC. Can you buy a rats nest in NYC for $621,000 today?

    What is even the correct question to ask? Is it: What would it cost to buy a brownstone like that in NYC today? Or, should the question be: What would it would cost today to buy a new house of that size?

    And what about the neighborhood's effect on the property value. In Houdini's time, it was a prosperous German neighborhood, wasn't it? Is it a low-income area today?

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  6. Good points. Yes, back in Houdini's day it was considered a prosperous German neighborhood. Not so now, but the area has improved in recent years. I'm going to post up a story soon on 278. Watch for it. :)

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