Real Estate
in law, land and whatever goes with it. Domestic animals, vehicles, loose lumber,-in general, articles that are movable,-are not reckoned a part of real estate; but in selling a farm, fences, buildings, a pump in a well,-in short, whatever has in a way been annexed to land,-goes with it. Standing trees belong to the land. Cordwood is personal property. Seed in the ground and growing crops go with the land. Harvested crops are personal property. Unless expressly reserved, all minerals, ores, and oils belong to the buyer of the land.
In one sense of the word, there is no individual ownership of real estate. The governments of all countries retain the right of eminent domain. Whenever land is necessary for a road, railroad right-of-way, station, library building, schoolhouse, court house, or for any other public or partly public purpose, the individual owner may be required to surrender his land for the general good. In all civilized countries he is entitled, by law, to receive full compensation.
In certain parts of England and other restricted portions of the world the law of entail prevails. Real estate passes from father to oldest son or next male heir. The owner, in fact, occupies merely in trust for the next heir. He can neither give, sell, nor bequeath real estate. In most countries, however, real estate, like personal property, is divided at the death of the owner among his children, the wife coming in for a share, varying with local legislation.
The sale of real estate requires more formality than that of personal property. A transfer is not binding until it has been committed to writing. In most of the states the deed must be signed by man and wife in the presence of witnesses. Both man and wife must certify in the presence of a notary public that their signatures are given of their own free will, and not under compulsion. When a deed thus executed has been handed formally to the purchaser, the transaction is complete.
The number of real estate owners is, of course, very large. There were in the United States, in 1900, 5,739,657 farms. The number of owners of city lots is also large. There are also many holders of cattle ranges and forest regions. Frederick Weyerhaeuser of St. Paul is credited with the ownership of 30,000,000 acres of timber land. The United States government is one of the largest real estate owners in the world. July 1, 1908, the general government still owned 754,895,296 acres. The total value of the farms of the United States was computed in 1900 at $20,514,001,838, an average of about $24 an acre. Choice land, soils and situation averaged, is about worth from ten to twenty times that amount per acre. The value of land in Rhode Island, soils and situations averaged, is about $60 per acre. Rich lands in the corn belt of the West are worth from $50 to $200 an acre. A strip of land two inches wide and running back the length of a city lot was sold in Baltimore in 1904 for $1,225. In 1905 a lot at the corner of Wall Street and Broadway, New York City, sold at the rate of $589.22 per square foot. Lots in the business center of New York have sold repeatedly at a rate between $6,000,000 and $7,000,000 an acre. The most desirable lots cannot be had even at $25,000,000 per acre. A plot of 1,200 square feet in Piccadilly, London, sold recently at a rate of $5,000,000 per acre.