Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 September 1894 — SHOWING ON MORTGAGES. [ARTICLE]

SHOWING ON MORTGAGES.

Bulletin Issued by the Head of tho Government Bureau of Statistics. Carro ID. Wright, as head of the Goverment’s Bureau of Statistics, has issued a bulletin in relation to the mortgage indebtedness of the country. It is supplementary to those previously issued by the < tnsus Bureau, and brings the work down to the beginning of lovO. According to Mr. Wright’s figures the total am mnt of mortgage indebtedness ou all forms of real e-tato Jan. 1, 1890, was $6,0J9,67u,9!55. The total number of mortgages in force was 4,777,' 98, making the average amount of indebtedness covered by each mortgage a little over $1,2t0. 'The numbei

of mortgages cn houses and lots was 2,303,061 and on acres and farms 2,4:4,657. The amount of incumbrance on the former was $2,810,531,554 and on the latter $2, 209,14*, 431. It maybe a surprise to many that the ma or portion of this form o indebtedne s lia3 been incurred not by the farming community but by the people in the cities and towns. The average amount of the farm mortgage is but a little over S9OO. while that on the lot and home is nearly $1,300. Neither does the West, as has been supposed, carry the weight of this burden in either case. Bew Yoric has more mortgages than Kansas and Massachusetts more than lowa. New York is the most heavily incumbered State in the Union. Its aggregate mortgage indebtedne-s is $1,607,874,301. Of this amount $1,390,061,240 is secured by mortgages on other forms of realty than "farms. Kansas’ mortgage debt amounted to but $243,146,826, of which $174,720,071 -was on acres and $68,428,755 on homes. Massachusetts carried a load of $323,277,668, of which only $42,441,247 had been incurred by the farmers of the State. The only real ground for complaint that the West has is that the money it borrows costs more than that lent out in the East. All through the Eastern States the average rate of interest is a little over 5 per cent, per annum, while in many portions of the West it it More than double this rate.