The Daily Feather — Jingle Bells by a Country Mile
Someday soon we all will be together
If the fates allow
Until then, we'll have to muddle through somehow
So have yourself a merry little Christmas now.
At nearly 400, “Jingle Bells” has been featured in more full-length feature films than any other Christmas carol. It’s not a matter of longevity. The 1857 classic is trailed by “Auld Lang Syne” and “Silent Night,” which were released in 1711 and 1818, respectively. For our merriment, the best of the best is “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” Written in 1943 by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane, it nearly ended up on the cutting room floor. As Martin, a Broadway composer, recalled in 1989, “I found a little madrigal-like tune that I liked, but couldn’t make work, so I played with it for two or three days and then threw it in the wastebasket.” Luckily, Blaine had been working in the office next door and was all ears. He convinced Martin to keep it alive. Already collaborating on music for the 1944 MGM Christmas movie Meet Me in St. Louis, the carol tucked right in. While Judy Garland did right by the song, we Italians are partial to Frank Sinatra’s 1947 rendition.
The next Feather we publish follows Christmas 2023. Next stop, 2024. As we look ahead to the New Year, we’re desperately seeking silver linings. Our biggest by far is disinflation. For generations, an epidemic of unaffordability has plagued U.S. households. The good news is that 2024 should see the biggest supply come online in decades. Per Zelman & Associates: “The multifamily backlog remained above 1.0 million for the sixth consecutive month after a slight decrease to 1.005 million.” A separate source, Yardi Matrix, tracks 1,223 million units in the construction pipeline.
Even on the single-family housing front, Redfin reported a double-digit annual increase in homeowners contacting their real estate agents for help selling their homes in the week ended December 17th. Meanwhile, new listings are up 9% year-over-year, the biggest annual increase since July 2021. Though we can’t quantify it, we know there’s additional pent-up supply that will come to the market as Airbnb jocks run dry of refinancing options.