White & Ouimette’s addition lies one and one-half miles from the limits, near the line of Hart’s railroad, and lots are sold at $50 each on the installment plan. Five years from now those who fail to invest in this class of residence property will be regretting it as keenly as do those now who made the same mistake about $50 and $100 lots five years ago. The increase in real estate values is best shown by the city assessment roll. In 1880 it was but $517,927; in 1886, $4,092,119; and in two years has increased to a total of $6,555,433. There has been a general advance in all classes of property, and no matter how high it has ever seemed to be, it is higher now and will be still higher a year hence. [Illustration: A. C. SMITH. GEO. E. ATKINSON. TACOMA’S BEAUTIFUL HOMES.] COMMERCIAL ADVANTAGES OF TACOMA. Many advantages are possessed by Tacoma which can not fail to result in building up here a large commercial city. A very large wholesale business is already established in many important lines of trade, and some of the largest and most complete retail stores to be found on the Pacific coast are located here. As an index of the condition of trade here the banking statistics are valuable. There are four national banks, one large private bank and a savings bank. The combined capital stock of these institutions is $630,000. The four national banks have $1,930,000 deposits, $1,892,000 discounts and $120,000 surplus and undivided profits. Such a showing of banking business indicates a volume of trade of large proportions, and as deposits have nearly doubled during the past year, the growth of trade is certainly remarkable. Tacoma’s position as the terminus of a great overland railway, as well as the terminal port on Puget sound for all local and ocean steamer lines, is one that assures it an enormous jobbing trade throughout the entire northwest. As a port of shipment for the coal, lumber, grain, iron, minerals and manufactured and agricultural products of an immense region, it must necessarily be the chief commercial point of the same section, and this is the cause of the marvelous increase in business during the first year after the completion of the railroad across the mountains. Foreign commerce already seeks this port for entrance into the United States. The sails of a clipper ship from China and Japan is a common sight in the harbor, and will be more frequent in the future. A line of steamers connecting the Northern Pacific with the ports of China, Japan, Australia and New Zealand is one of the certainties of a not distant future. Having the advantage over San Francisco of a much shorter route to China, Tacoma, as the chief port on Puget sound, can not fail to be a formidable rival to that city for the Oriental trade. [Illustration: ALLEN C. MASON. E. PIERCE. FARRELL & DARMER, ARCH. TACOMA’S BEAUTIFUL HOMES.] WATER FRONT AND HARBOR IMPROVEMENTS.