Top 5 Most Abandoned Cities

This is episode number 364 of The Homeowner Show. Well, whether you're DIY or looking to hire, we're gonna help you find the best information and options for you and your home. My name is Kevin Hackett, and here with me is Craig Williams.

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to The Homeowner Show. We are so glad that you could join us for another live episode here in, in The Homeowner Show studios. How you doing, Kev? I'm pretty good. I almost botched that.

That's okay. I didn't.

It was stressful.

No. Well, yeah, it was a little bit. Uh, I, dude, like, can it get any hotter outside?

Yes.

I, holy cow, man.

Careful what you ask for.

I, it has been incredibly warm. And I—

Say that, I'm actually turning the AC back on in here right now. It was cold before you got here.

Oh, well, good idea. I mean, And I, how can I really complain? I don't have your job. And so I'm not complaining. I'm really not. But it is, I feel bad for you. That's what it is.

It's not so bad, honestly. I mean, like, my guys all have to wear long sleeve shirts and long pants and gloves. And like, people look at us like, oh, I don't understand how you do that. It's like, well, once you get sweaty, it's actually kind of nice.

Yeah, I can see that.

I mean, especially if there's a breeze. Yeah. It's not too bad.

Well, so, okay. I mean, y'all are in and out of a truck. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, like, like, like most of the time. We're on the ground 15, 20 minutes.

And then you're out.

Yeah, and then we're out. And then we're back in the AC.

Yeah, and you're driving for 20 or 30 minutes.

Most of my guys, I tell 'em to keep a cooler with water or like an insulated glass with, you know, like a Stanley Cup or something like that. So they have water with 'em all day.

Yeah, sure.

Or Gatorade.

Yeah.

But like, this isn't even that bad.

No, I mean, I think the problem is that this happens, what I've noticed, so I've lived here almost 10 years now, What I've noticed is the, the middle end of June— July, I mean— until the end of August just doesn't rain.

Yeah, no, like we're, we're looking at 2, 2, 3 weeks without any significant rain right now, right? I mean, it's not good.

No, and, and you look around and like for, for an area that just stays green pretty good amount of time, yeah, things are turning. Yep, things are turning.

Well, and everything was really saturated pretty early on for the summer months. We had, we had a lot of rain.

We did.

Um, and, and sometimes, you know, it's like when you spoil a child.

We got, we got spoiled.

Yep.

Um, well, who knows? I mean, they're saying, and nobody can really know, but they're saying it could be a pretty wet, uh, September.

It, it can be. That's, you know, hurricane season.

Yeah, well, yeah, and it's El Niño this year, so I don't know.

Yeah, well, I mean, we'll see. So we got some fun stuff for you guys tonight. We're definitely going to be talking about the Owen Wilson debate. If you haven't— I mean, it has nothing to do with homeownership.

Owen's Wilson.

Owen's Wilson debate.

That's different than Owen Wilson debate.

Owen Wilson. That would be fun.

Yeah.

We would debate Owen Wilson.

Well, I mean, sure. The voice of—

Have you seen the new movie that he's going to be in with Alan— what is it? Alan Ritchson? Richardson, the guy that plays Reacher?

Oh, no.

Dude, that looks good.

I bet it does.

Um, and it's not even like— it doesn't sound like anything I would ever be interested in. Like, he's a, uh— I think Owen Wilson is playing a doctor and Alan is playing the driver who, like, apparently has some sort of mysterious past, but they're doing organ, uh, transplant transportation.

Oh.

And somebody's trying to steal the organ that they have.

Oh, that sounds good. And it's like, if he, if he doesn't say ka-chow, then it won't work.

You know? It should be in there somewhere.

Yeah. Somewhere.

So, yeah. The Owens-Wilson debate. We're gonna be, we're gonna be talking a little bit about that. We also got the top 5 most exited cities in 2026.

Yeah. This is gonna be good.

And then we've got a couple of just, like, little news stories about things that are happening in, in the home ownership market right now.

Yeah.

Which one of those you wanna get into first?

I, look, I'm very interested in the debate. Okay, let's talk about that first.

Let's talk about the debate.

Yeah.

So both sides are claiming victory.

Obviously, sure.

So, and I think at this point, let me just pull up one.

So do we wanna like preface what's happened? At all or no? You go look it up if you care.

I mean, look, if you don't know, then you don't care.

Probably not. Let's see.

I'm just pulling up her channel.

Okay.

So yeah, on her channel alone, and they streamed this debate live on 4 separate channels.

Okay.

It was the Candace Owens channel, The Crucible, PBD Podcast and the Whatever Podcast, right, all streamed it concurrently on her channel right now. That— what is it, almost 3, just over 3-hour debate has 4.9 million views.

Oh my goodness.

So, and then the, the clips on it are going nuts. Um, it's, it's insane. Um, and, and like, just, I mean, just the, the brief setup on this is Candace has been making some outlandish claims about Israel's involvement, the French Foreign Legion's involvement, the CIA's involvement, Erica Kirk's involvement in the conspiracy— it's not a conspiracy— in conspiring to kill Charlie Kirk.

Yeah. Now, is she claiming that they all did it together, or that there may be separate claims against each?

Okay, in my opinion, there's not a lot of coherency going on here. I don't know exactly what she's claiming.

That's a good point.

Other than that, she's just claiming a lot of things.

That's fair.

And Andrew Wilson's proposition was, I don't think you have any positive evidence for any of these claims.

Right.

So the debate happened.

Yes.

I don't think it went really well for him.

Okay.

I don't.

Well, he lost— well, he crowdfunded it, but he spent $300 grand plus a trip over there to—

yes, to do it.

She made a little bit of cash on it.

Oh, for sure. For sure. She got herself a nice little nest egg.

Yeah.

Um, not that she didn't already have it. No, but, um, but yeah, she know, like, and this is, this is the thing is her channel has blown up ever since she's been doing this conspiracy-themed content. Sure. And I look, if you want— if you watched our show for any amount of time, you know, I love me a good conspiracy.

Yeah. I was wondering if your mom's, like, following her.

No, she's not.

Good. Do not tell her about her.

No, no. Well, this is one I don't— I don't think she would actually go down the rabbit hole.

Okay, good.

Just because she liked Charlie so much.

Right.

And she liked, you know, as so many people on the right did, they loved— not loved, The whole funeral thing that they did for Charlie where everybody showed up.

Sure.

And then Erica stood on the promenade and said, I forgive that man.

Sure.

That was a big moment.

It was.

And so I don't think she would ever go down that road. And that's not to say that there's not weird stuff around his death.

No, there is.

There's really weird stuff.

Yeah.

Like the whole repaving of the entire area where he was assassinated, like, 2 days later.

Yeah, why?

Like, why?

Why?

Nobody knows.

No.

We've gotten no clear answer on that. But again, not having a clear answer on that isn't evidence—

No.

For a conspiracy.

No.

It just means that, like, that's weird. That's a weird thing.

That's weird.

Um, so, but there— and, and there's, there's weird stuff surrounding his death.

Yeah.

And she's making all of these assertions, but she doesn't really feel the need to share. And this was the thing. I watched all 3 hours of it. I know you didn't.

I did not.

Here was, here was the big takeaway for me, is if you are going to make all these claims, well, there's, there's 2 big things for me. If you're going to make all these claims, and she did, and then she said, I can't tell you why, because I don't want to reveal my sources. The problem with that, Andrew Wilson actually brings up in the debate, is he goes, okay, that's very convenient because I could just as easily say I have sources that say that your sources are lying.

Yeah, that's— it's a he said, she said.

Yeah, that's, that's exactly what it is. And like, you have no evidence at that point for these positions. And she's like, well, we've produced photos and we've produced— and because of my sources, I've been able to get, you know, access to all these things. And because of this My— and like, obviously, because I have so many people listening to me now, I've garnered their trust, and that makes me reliable. Like, that doesn't make you reliable. No, that makes you entertaining.

Well, and, and also, it's like, to what end? Like, for you, for her, literally, like, why do you have all of this? Why do you care so much? Yeah, I mean, not that— not that you shouldn't care. Yeah, yeah, they were friends. They were friends. And not that you shouldn't care, but like you're independently going out and finding all of these sources and secretly holding onto information and all for what? Yeah.

Yes. You know?

Yes.

And so like the highest form of conspiracy in her opposition is that she's doing this for the money.

Well, yeah.

It's—

Well, she did.

She is doing it for the money. Like she is making lots of money off of Charlie Kirk's death.

Right.

And some people find that despicable. The problem is, is that the people who are, you know, the people who are going up against her are also making money off of her making money off of Charlie Kirk's death. So it's like all of these people are suckling at the teat of this poor man who was assassinated in public. You know, and like—

It's deplorable. Yes.

It's like, all of you should just shut up. So here's my other big issue. Is she is saying that Tyler Robinson is a patsy.

Well, a lot of people are saying that.

Yes. And she's not convinced he's the shooter. She's not convinced he was involved. She's convinced that he had some role, but like, she doesn't know that he made the shot. I actually have problems around the whole shooting situation myself.

Sure.

It seems suspect.

It does.

It doesn't seem impossible.

Right.

It seems improbable.

Correct.

My issue is he was he he was a really good shot. If he made it, it was a really good shot.

It was a really good shot. Really, really, really good. Anyway, go ahead.

Yeah, really, really good shot for an amateur.

Yeah.

Um, for it was a really good shot for anybody.

Um, correct.

So, um, my my issue is is that that you really believe that he's a patsy and. This is the problem. She would never say that she thought that he was innocent or anything like that. But, like, if you have all this information that shows that there's other people involved, why aren't you providing that information to his defense?

Right. Where—

and according to his defense lawyers, she has come forward with no information. And at that point, you become an extremely immoral individual that is withholding evidence that could potentially release a innocent man from being convicted of a crime that carries the death penalty. In which you are now complicit in his execution if you don't come forward.

Right.

That's my problem with it. It's like, if you are so confident in all this stuff, and you have all these sources, and you have all of this evidence, then give it to them. It doesn't mean that they can use it, but it gives them a direction to go to find the evidence that they can use to defend their client.

Yeah, and it's like, if you're so convinced about this, why wouldn't you?

You're a horrible, horrible, wretched human being if you don't.

Right.

And so that's what—

that's—

that was my conclusion. You're a horrible, wretched human being, Candus, if you have all this information and you haven't handed it over to their defense. You now have shown that you are withholding evidence just so you can make— continue to make money off of people's excruciating pain and horrible circumstance.

Yep.

So shame on you.

Well, and—

And so like, it's either that or you're just a bald-faced liar.

Well, and, and it's this whole time, if you followed her at all through this whole thing, it's been weird.

It has been weird. I will give her the benefit of the doubt in saying like, look, It's weird.

No. No. She's been weird.

She has been weird. Yes.

Like, I mean, there have been moments where she's almost laughing at, at the situation.

Yes.

And, and where she has, like, again, her platform rose when all of this went down. Mhmm.

What— so here's, here's the thing, man, is what is the fastest growing segment of podcast content on the market right now? Do you know?

No.

True crime.

Okay.

True crime is the fastest growing, most impressive, largest numbers, largest listening audience. Do you know why?

Uh, because of who's producing it?

No, no, no, no. It's the demographic.

Okay.

So for the longest time, podcast listening and, and those forms of content have been pretty much dominated by males.

Sure.

Until people started making content that females were actually interested in.

Okay.

So Candace's audience is like 70% female.

Interesting. Why?

Because she is producing a form of content likened to true crime.

Ah, Unsolved Mysteries.

Unsolved Mysteries. Right?

Yeah.

It's this conspiratorial true crime, unsolved mystery thing. And by the way, I have all the secrets. sources. I've got all this secret evidence that you guys don't have access to, and I'm gonna break it down for you. And it's like, shut up.

Yeah.

Like, this, this is like, you, like, kudos to you for understanding the marketplace. She, she's very intelligent. She's quick on her feet. She's well-spoken. Like, and there's like, look, when Candace was doing Blexit, I think that's what it was called. Blexit.

Okay, I don't know.

Do you remember when Britain had the whole Brexit?

Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.

They were removing themselves from the European Union.

Right.

So she took a play on words and said, I'm gonna do Blexit, which was Black Americans exiting the Democratic Party.

Okay.

But when she was doing that, I thought it was really brilliant. I thought it was really smart. You know, she was— what she was saying was, hey, listen, Like, we as Black Americans need to recognize that we've been voting for this party for years and years and years and years, and we're not getting what we want.

Sure.

So we all need to exit until we do. And I thought that was reasonable.

Yeah.

I thought that was like, okay, like, that's actually something that could be good for Black voters.

Sure.

To say, like, it doesn't matter that I necessarily agree with Republicans or Libertarians, whoever you wanted to, like, exit and go vote for. But, like, let's remove our vote from the Democrat Party until they decide to start listening to what it is that we actually want to give— want them to do for us. And then do those things.

Well, we've said this for a long time. Like, there comes a point when your opinion has to matter or it doesn't. Right. And part of that is to take action or inaction. One of the two. It's like, OK, not that we could do this, but if everybody stopped buying gas, the prices would change. They would.

Sure.

If everybody stopped traveling, the prices would change. Right? If everyone stopped, you know, started buying this versus something else, your actions then matter. So, yeah, her actions, what she was saying was like, OK, let's actually do some— put our money where our mouth is type of thing and do something about it. I remember this conversation. But honestly, the woman, I feel like she's off her rocker in many ways because it— bipolar, maybe. I don't know. Because she does one thing and then does the other thing. I don't know. I think you're right. I think she's trying to profit off of Charlie's death.

Well, she is profiting off.

She is, but I think she's actively trying to. I mean, it's one thing that if you, if you accidentally— not say accidentally, it's kind of weird way to put it— but, but if you, if you wind up making money off of something because you're at the right place at the right time, that's one thing.

Sure.

But, but whenever you're like actively pursuing the money based on something, especially like this, It just feels wrong. Feels very wrong to me. So yeah. Anyway.

So I was, when I was listening to PBD's show today, they were kind of doing like a recap of the debate. And he had an interesting perspective that I do tend to—

'Cause he moderated, right?

He moderated the debate.

Okay.

I actually think he did a pretty good job. People were like, he didn't, but like he actually just kind of let them go. There was oh by the way there was also like a a bit of conspiracy within the debate that like Stephen Crowder came out and said hey by the way I know that Candace uses earpieces so she could have been getting that information via an earpiece so and then there's actually clips of Andrew Wilson adjusting his earpiece oh while in there and so PBD came out today and said hey by the way like We all had earpieces. Candace's studio provided them to us so that we could hear if we played a clip. Kind of like we're wearing headphones right now. That,

okay, he said that, but it also doesn't mean, I mean, I've worked with monitor systems enough to know that like, it doesn't mean that they couldn't have been talking just specifically to her or to him in their ears.

Oh yeah, and yeah. You can turn off channels and turn on channels very easily.

I've shown you a mixing system that allows you to do that. That's right. Um, so it doesn't mean that people weren't— and, and some people were saying that that was what was going on when she knew all 7, like she would. And if you watch the video, she stalls for a long time to give all 7, and people are like, oh, she was letting her people look it up so they give it to her in the earpiece.

Maybe.

I don't know if that's what was going on. I don't care. That wasn't like the linchpin for me. For a lot of people, it was like, okay, that's when he lost. Um, But, you know, Patrick Bet-David's perspective was that Andrew Wilson won, not because he thought he had better arguments, but that he actually, he was the lowest rung of the 3.

Oh, okay.

And so his channel got the least amount of livestream views.

Okay.

But he essentially, quadrupled his reach by having it on Candace's show, right? Having it on Patrick Bet-David's show.

Yeah.

Having it on the whatever show.

It's, it's everywhere now.

It's everywhere now. And people who didn't know him now know him.

Yeah.

That he paid $300,000 to get about 10 million views.

Yes.

I was gonna say on YouTube.

Yeah. Um, it worked.

Which he'll get that back.

Sure he will.

Again, I don't think that that's a great thing. Well, he, he crowdfunded and already surpassed the amount that he needed to pay her.

Yeah.

And so like, he, if, if nothing else, he broke even.

Right.

Cool.

Cool.

Um, but because he broke even, he now has his face in front of a much bigger audience.

Yeah.

That's going to be paying attention to what he does and what he says in the aftermath.

Well, and, and like you said, I mean, If, if neither one of them had like actually a clear victory, everyone kind of won and everyone kind of lost.

Yeah, there was even— there was no clear victor in this thing.

Well, honestly, I can tell you there was a loser.

Who's the loser?

Well, Charlie, you know. Well, I mean, I think he loses more and more whenever people just exploit things.

Here's the thing. Yes and no. Like, we're coming up on the 1-year anniversary of his assassination, which is September 11th, by the way. We're still talking about it.

Of course we are.

So like, yes, Charlie loses because like we're kind of dragging his name through the mud. At the same time, we're still talking about him a year later.

Sure.

Like most people die, maybe 3 months, maybe.

Yeah, you're right about that.

I mean, unless you're like immediate family.

But this has like been ongoing.

Yeah, he's—

That's the thing. It's like, it's not like it resurfaced because a trial is coming or something. Like, it, it, which I guess it kind of did, but I mean, it's been ongoing. And partly I think because, you know, Turning Point hasn't gone away, nor is it going away. No. So I, I don't know.

Well, like, it's, and that event is not going away.

No, it's not.

For a lot of, I was, I was at a, I was at a networking meeting the other day and this gal in her, her 20s, and I said, were you even alive for 9/11? She was like, no.

No.

And I was like, so Charlie Kirk was like the first like public traumatic event, and you probably know exactly where you were when it happened, don't you? And she goes, oh yeah. And I was like, that's— that is crazy.

It's crazy.

Um, I, I don't remember where I was at for, uh, Charlie Kirk's assassination. I remember it happening.

I do too.

But I remember where I was at for 9/11.

Oh, 100% I do.

I remember where I was at for Challenger 7.

Oh yeah, I do too, actually.

Um, and but like, and our parents probably all remember exactly where they were for JFK.

JFK. Oh yeah, my mom can tell you exactly.

Um, you know, and there's other stuff. Like, I was, I was trying to explain to somebody the other day, um, it's weird when you were at an event that everybody remembers where they were at when it happened. Because for the, for those of you that don't know, I was at the bonfire when it fell at A&M back in '99.

Uh-huh.

And like, it's just weird for people, like if they don't know that you were there, and then in a conversation they'll be like, I remember where I was when that happened. And I've had lots of people tell me that.

Sure.

It's weird for me because it's like, oh, I was there.

Actually there.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But like, because it doesn't, to me it doesn't seem like it's a massively important event, but it doesn't seem like it should be as big of a deal to other people.

Other people, because they weren't there.

Like, because they weren't there. Yeah, you know what I mean? And so like, it's— that's, that's a weird one.

Yeah. Yeah.

And I imagine people who were like in New York when 9/11 happened.

Oh yeah.

When the entire country is like, I remember exactly where I was when that happened. When I remember when the plane flew into the second tower. And, and people are like, how do you— like, why would you remember that? Like, I remember it because I was there. I watched the plane fly into the tower, right? Yeah, yeah, you know what I mean?

Yeah, it's like the wardrobe malfunction. Yes, I know exactly where I was whenever the wardrobe malfunction happened.

I actually do remember where I was at for that.

Most, most people in youth ministry do. Just saying.

Ironically enough, I was in a church gymnasium.

Yeah, a lot of us were.

There was a lot of oxygen sucked in immediately.

Yes, there was. That was a weird event, too.

Did you see that? Yeah, I saw that.

Yeah, that's exactly—

yeah, there was a titty on the screen.

There was. Yeah, for a moment.

Uh, anyway, poor Justin Timberlake.

I'm sure. Yes, poor J— poor JT. Yeah, that's what I think.

OK, so let's, let's, let's get into this, and we'll get into the 5 cities. So there's, there's, there's a couple of things I want to get into Uh, let's see here. I have my notes. Ba ba ba. Okay. Which one do I want to start with?

By the way, that's a great transition. Oh, we just had from titty to, to something else.

To something else.

Yeah.

I'm bored with it now.

We need to transition faster. Okay.

So here's, here's, here's the big one. Here's one of the big ones. Okay. Is that home build—

We're talking about a new topic?

New, totally new topic. We're moving on. Home, home, home purchasing. Okay. Home purchasing. The home builders are starting to blink. There's a new survey that came out that said that 35% of builders are starting to cut prices in August.

Oh.

So, and they're starting to cut prices on an average of about 6%.

That's pretty significant.

That's significant. So, um, we're having that. And so, uh, and then the other part of that is like 63% of home builders are starting to offer massive incentives.

Okay.

Which could be reduced interest rates.

Okay. Um, the same, same builders?

Different. So yes.

Okay. Ish.

Okay. Okay. 35% of builders are offering price cuts.

Okay.

Price cuts range up to about 6%.

Okay.

In and amongst all of those builders, 63% are offering some kind of sales incentive.

So those numbers could be up pretty significantly for some builders.

So like you could, you could actually combine a 6% decrease in the price with an incentive.

That's pretty significant.

Right. And so you, so you've got about a 40% chance.

Sure.

Of getting both.

Oh, sure.

So you, that could be a rate buydown. It could be they cover closing costs. It could be additional upgrades. It could be additional warranties.

Okay.

And, and, and then price concessions and all that kind of stuff. So the other one that I thought that was interesting in conjunction with that is homeowners, new homeowners are beginning to realize how expensive it is to actually own a home. And so they, this report that just came out said that on average, for owning a single-family home, the average cost annually is about $11,200 to maintain the home.

Just to maintain. That's not mortgage.

That's not your mortgage.

Interesting.

That's just maintenance.

That, that's, that's not even taxes?

No.

That's just maintenance.

Maintenance.

Interesting.

So now you can, you can flesh that out in all sorts of ways. I mean, if you're hiring Jose the lawn guy to do your lawn, you know, Hiring the plumber, whatever. Like, there's all sorts of stuff that goes into maintaining a home.

Sure.

But on average, for new home buyers, it's costing them about $11,000.

Okay.

To maintain the home.

Okay.

That's pretty steep.

I mean, that's pretty steep.

You know, if you're, if you're making less than $100K, that's more than 10% of your pay.

Yeah.

That you're having to shell out on top of your mortgage.

On top of.

Which your mortgage, I'm guessing, is on average gonna cost you $15,000, $16,000 a year.

Which is, so it's almost double. I mean, you know, like it's almost 100% of what your mortgage is depending. That's my point.

Yeah.

That's a lot.

And so like when people, this is, this is what, this is why this is important information to have because when you go into a brand new home, you're thinking la-dee-da. I've got it made in the shade. I've got this brand new home. I've got warranties. I've got ba ba ba ba.

Yeah.

Well, like, then you start experiencing, like, oh, there's things I actually have to do to this house in order to maintain it. Like, I've gotta pay the electrical bill. I've gotta pay the water bill. Like, like, all these things that you have to do in order to keep the house running.

Right.

It gets expensive. It does. And they're not— and most people don't plan for those costs.

When I— and on— no. I think I, I, some— on some level, it's difficult to plan for those costs. Even if you don't get into a brand new home, Which I know that's what we're talking about, but— No, no, no.

This is, this is average across all—

Across homes. Okay. Yes. Because the reality of it is you don't fully know until you get into that house. You don't.

Yeah.

What's going on? I mean, we, we had a situation the other day where the compressor on our septic went out.

Oh.

Which, which I don't know if you know what that does. I didn't know what it did at the time.

Well, I don't have a septic like you have.

No.

Because I imagine you have an anaerobic one.

I do. Yep.

I got old school pooper hole.

Yeah, no, mine does the whole, you know, it sprinklers out, which honestly is great. Sure. As long as it's working. Yeah, as long as it's working. Well, the compressor feeds air into the system. Air into the system, it, The easiest way to say it is it, it keeps the smell down. So if you, when it sprays water—

Which is the biggest complaint from an anaerobic system is that it stinks when the sprinklers go off.

It, it will not stink when the sprinklers go off if your compressor is working.

I don't believe that for a minute.

It, it doesn't. I mean, if it's working, it doesn't smell. I'm, it's just the way it works. I mean, trust me, I live there.

Uh, if the compressor doesn't work, I think this is, this is the issue that we talked about last week when you've been living in your house with cats for, for months.

No, no, no, because, and here's how I know, when the compressor goes out, uh-huh, it smells.

Well, I think it smells worse. It smells really bad. Look, I'm not, I'm not saying it's bad. Like, I'm like, it's, it's like when I've been around an anaerobic system and the sprinklers go off, it's a momentary odor that goes through the yard.

Okay.

And it's not massive. It's not like obnoxious. It's like, oh, I know what that is.

Okay.

Well, you know what I mean?

I do, but I just think that it's probably not working in efficiency at that point. I will tell you when ours is, when, and I, we've got 2 on our property. When they go off, as long as things are working properly, You don't notice. Um, and you can notice even if you're used to it, you would notice that. I mean, it doesn't smell good.

Um, I mean, did you have some like stinky poo water going on?

Well, that's how I knew the compressor was out, is because I was like, this is—

Does it affect other things?

No, not really.

That's really all it's doing?

That's what it's doing.

Okay.

Yeah. And so now there, you also put the chlorine tablets in. And a lot of people think that's what keeps the smell down. Those things don't do anything other than sanitize the water.

Yeah, keep you from getting diseases and—

Well, for example, if you got animals and stuff, they're out there, you know, they drink, you know, whatever gets sprayed out because they're an animal.

Sure.

You know, it cleanses it. That's what those things are for. But then that didn't keep the smell down. The compressor does. So, uh, it went out. It was $350. That's not bad. No, but it's $350.

Sure. But like, yeah, you, you know what I mean? Add it up over the, over the course of a year and you're like, you're like, oh my gosh, what did I spend this year?

Right. And you don't, and you don't really recognize it because you're like, well, I gotta get that fixed. I mean, that's something that needs to be done. And over time, $11,000 goes by.

Well, and I, I, okay. So I think that's important to say is the average is $11,000.

Could be more.

It could be. Look, yeah. Like you can have, look, a new air conditioning system. That can be your whole year. That's it right there.

Right there.

That's why it's the average because some people pay less and some people pay way more.

That's right.

Um, it's just out there. So the other one that I thought was interesting is, uh, HOA costs are exploding. Oh, so since—

I hate HOAs.

Nobody loves them. If you don't believe us, we have episodes on this.

Yeah.

Um, since 2020, average HOA assessments have increased by over 50%.

Oh my goodness.

Specifically 50.5%, but that's over 50%, and that's just egregious. Well, it is. And shouldn't be the case.

The prices are already egregious.

Yeah.

And then on top of that, and now look, I, I will say you agreed to live in the gated community, or you should have done your research, right? But I mean, Does that count into home maintenance?

No.

That doesn't even count there either.

No.

So, I mean, you're talking mortgage plus HOA fees plus taxes plus maintenance. It cost— it can cost a lot to own a home. Yeah.

I, I will say this.

It's still worth it.

Um, and we can, we could probably do an episode on this, uh, later on. We actually got a check from our HOA a few months back for about $1,200.

Why?

Uh, it was, it's a, it's kind of a long story.

Okay.

Um, but everybody in the neighborhood got, got it.

Was it an overpayment type of thing?

No.

Okay.

No, it was a service that the neighborhood technically couldn't provide.

Okay.

And then had planned on spending the money, been, had been collecting additional fees.

Okay. From then.

And then they realized they couldn't do it. And then they put a vote out to the community and said, hey, would you like a refund or do you want us to like, hold these funds and use them for future projects.

Refund, please.

Well, there's, there's a whole, like, like, again, it, it, it's a whole episode.

It, it, or at least part of an episode.

It, it, it kind of goes into, uh, Robert's rules of procedures.

Okay.

Um, that makes sense. And so we, we, we, we, we can do an episode on it.

Sure. We should.

It's, it's an interesting one.

Yeah.

Um, but I wanna get into the, uh, the top 5 most exited cities because I thought this bit of data was I mean, some of them you're going to be like, yeah, of course.

Um, but some of them you're going to be like, are any of them Camden?

Sorry. No, but, but New Jersey, New Jersey. Okay. So there's not a city in New Jersey that comes up in the top 5.

Oh, come on.

But because we know that we have, so like we've got 2 pieces of content out there that are just really firing on all 4 cylinders. One of them is Kevin's excoriating review of Camden, in which he calls them just a smiley— not a smiley, a smoldering heap of garbage. And I think that content is like 5 years old. Yeah. And people are still finding it going like, who the hell is this guy?

He lives in Houston. Oh.

So the other one is the black jaguar that was photographed in Huntsville.

That's a good one.

And like, I can't tell you the number of hillbillies—

Oh yeah.

That have commented on that post going like, you guys are stupid, I saw one last weekend. And I'm like, where's your picture, Bubba? And like crickets.

Well, why would I take a picture of something I see every day?

Yeah.

Take a picture of my wife all the time.

They killed my granny.

Oh my goodness. So here we go.

Top 5. Do you want, you wanna go from the, so number 5 to number 1?

Yeah, 5 to number 1. Okay.

So number 5 is actually Washington, DC.

Oh.

Uh, net outflow of roughly $24,000 in, uh, in 2025. And, uh, DC's domestic outflow did improve by about $20,000 year over year. So—

It's an expensive place to live.

It's an expensive— so, and, and so what I asked, I did a bunch of research on this and I was like, okay, so what's, what's the cause and why is this happening? Um, DC was an interesting one.

Okay.

Because, uh, they cited the high, high cost of housing in the city. And so more people are willing to move out to Virginia.

I believe that.

Or Maryland.

Mm-hmm.

Which I don't know, Maryland's—

Baltimore's not far. It's across.

Baltimore's not far, but it's just as expensive.

Oh, sure.

So more people are moving to like the outskirts of Virginia and then willing to commute in.

Okay. Well, they got lots of trains.

It's easy. But there's actually 2 issues that are going on. And I hadn't thought about this, but because Trump unleashed Elon Musk on everything, a lot of those people lost their jobs.

I guess so.

And so those jobs were housed within DC. They had to find new jobs and those people had to leave DC. DC.

So this may be a one-time exit.

It could be.

But it, but it skews the numbers for '26.

Right.

Okay. Right.

Because all those guys kind of tried to hang in there and/or their contracts ended sometime in 2026. Makes sense. And so they had to find other positions to move out. Uh, number 4 was the one that was actually shocking and surprising to me.

Okay.

Miami, Florida.

Really?

Yes.

Um, bienvenidos a Miami. So it's a Will Smith comment.

Thank you. Okay. Yeah. Um, for all of our listeners that weren't alive during 9/11, they don't get the reference.

No, they don't.

Um, but yeah, so apparently what's been happening is a lot of people that have been exiting other places have been moving to Florida, and one of the more desirable places to live in Florida is Miami. And because of that, The housing boom has been happening in Miami for the past several years. And because of that, housing costs have increased exponentially, and people are beginning to leave Miami to go. And we don't know where they're going, but we know that they're exiting Miami.

Interesting.

Incidentally enough, that's where PBD lives.

Oh.

But he got there years ago.

Yeah. During COVID Staked his claim.

Oh yeah. I mean, like, look, he spent a bunch of money on the place he has. He's got a big airplane hangar there. He's doing fine.

As you do.

Um, and he's gonna hang in there because he got everything at a, a totally ridiculous price, I'm sure, compared to what it was worth.

Yeah.

Um, so number 3, no big surprise here. San Francisco, San Jose Bay, um, outflow of about $21,000.

Um, curious, what did, what did the research say why on that one?

So on the, on the Bay Area, uh, let's see.

Is it cuz the Giants? suck? Let's see. Because they do.

So a lot of it is, is a lot of the tech businesses are living, leaving that area.

Oh yeah. Uh, for sure. You know where, you know where is exploding tech-wise?

Utah. Oh, interesting.

Yeah. The Provo area, Provo and well, Salt Lake too. The tech industry there is booming.

And anywhere where you see any tech company putting in a data center, you're going to see tech companies moving there.

Sure.

I mean, either because they're clients, potential clients, or, you know, they're like these traditional Silicon Valley guys are gonna be going like, okay, like we can take our millions and our tax benefits elsewhere.

Yeah.

And get rid of these high housing costs. That was the other one with San Francisco, San Jose Bay is high housing costs. That's the main driver is high housing costs. I think it's important to understand it doesn't necessarily mean that they're leaving California.

True. Or Florida.

Or Florida.

Right, right.

It means that they're leaving those cities.

I mean, it could be just a suburb even. They're leaving the city, right?

Yeah. Okay. Okay. So number 2, New York. New York City specifically. About 23,000 net left in a single quarter.

Did they even notice? No.

But they, I mean, like, that's the thing is it's the death by a thousand cuts.

It is.

I think at this point.

Sure.

Housing costs are the main issue there. Yeah, that's really it. I mean, and most people that live in New York City, they have jobs. Well, so this is interesting. 2026 survey notes that NYC's cost of living runs about 139% above the national average.

Oh, goodness. Yeah.

So if you wanna pay up, yeah, more than double, right? You're happy to live there. But, but you like, you, you have, you have several, I think you have compounding issues in New York and it just makes sense that New York is number 2, if not number 1. Uh, Mom Dami is, is just doing, have you heard about like his, uh, his grocery store idea?

No.

Like, he's, he's talking about making grocery— he's talking about getting rid of like the bodegas and just making the grocery stores in New York a, a city entity.

Okay.

And doing control costs on all the groceries.

Ugh.

So, but the funny part about that is you have to have an ID that proves that you live in New York in order to shop at these stores. And so like, it's like people are looking at this going like, okay, this is like, yeah, we voted for this communist.

Right.

But like, we didn't actually think that he was gonna do things. Yeah.

That were communist-like.

And the things that we thought he was gonna do, he's not doing. He said he was gonna make the trains for free. He can't do that.

No.

Um, so I think, I think, I think reasonable people in New York have lost confidence in their government and are going, there's gotta be better places to live.

Of course.

Um, and it doesn't mean that New York is failing. It doesn't mean that it's in squalor. It just means that there's a bunch of people still leaving New York.

Sure.

Um, and number one, I'm betting you can guess what the number one city is.

You think so?

Maybe. I think you can.

Well, my, my thought would be Chicago.

No.

Well then, I don't know.

It's Los Angeles.

Ooh, LA.

Yeah. So California has 2, 2 in the top 5.

Okay.

Um, so again, primary driver is cost. Uh, so typical home in Los Angeles costs double what it costs in Las Vegas.

Oh, it's insane. Insane, right? I mean, I, I remember Um, long story short, some good friends of mine, um, older, older couple, um, they— he, he bought a house in, in LA. It was just a regular home, nothing crazy. I think it's like 1,800, maybe 2,000 square foot. Uh, he paid like $100,000 for it.

Okay.

Uh, his neighbor this was in the early 2000s. His neighbor sold their house for something like $1.5 million.

Oh gosh.

Yeah. That's crazy.

Sell now. Sell now.

Well, yeah, but he didn't. I mean, it didn't matter because it's worth more now than it was then. It's crazy. Now, not every street's going to be like that, but it is pretty crazy.

Yeah.

If you've owned a home in LA for 40, 50 years, that's— you're sitting on a gold mine.

Potentially, if you can find somebody to buy it. That's the problem is there's so many people leaving. They don't have any people moving in that—

one's got to give, right?

They don't have any people moving in that can afford those homes.

No.

And, and so what you've created is this insane renters market.

Sure.

And this is, this is sort of similar what I was talking about with Oregon, because Oregon, by the way, got the signatures to get that initiative on the ballot to eliminate all hunting and fishing in the state of Oregon. And I'm like, do it.

Do it. Yeah, please.

Please.

Yes.

By all means.

Yeah.

Like, I will start a pest control company in Oregon with all of the rats and foxes and elk and stuff start invading people's homes and you're begging people to get rid of them. And like, what are you gonna do about it? You can't do anything about it.

Nothing.

Um, or, and, or all the property value just plummets and it becomes acceptable for guys like me to come in and like scoop it up.

Right.

And, and then like change the laws and then change the laws. Yeah, exactly. Um, so yeah, yeah, please do these things. But I also think in Los Angeles, man, one of the things that people continue to talk about is things like Skid Row. Oh, where it be— as more people leave, it becomes more and more obvious how awful the homeless situation is, is in Los Angeles, because they become perceivable and more abundant because of— because there's less people to take away the distraction of how many homeless people are actually in LA.

Yeah, there's a bunch.

And, and they've, they've created this environment and this culture where it's acceptable to be homeless in LA and just be everywhere. And so the city gets dirtier.

Sure.

And uglier and more drug-ridden and more crime-ridden. And like, at some point you don't have enough people for it to even make sense to not let them just take it over.

They're the new Camden.

I love, I love that you continue to hammer on that city. When were you there last?

Uh, last time I was there, try to think, probably 2014.

2014?

Yeah. So it's been a few years. I mean, a few. I don't know if they could have conjured up a police department in that amount of time.

You know, who knows what they could have done?

Who knows?

With a strong woman mayor, who knows what they could accomplish?

That's right. By the way, speaking of this area, Philadelphia is right there. I mean, it's across the river. Have you seen the new Rocky movie coming out?

I've seen the previews for it.

Yeah. Well, that's fine, man. Like the, the looks really good. I here, I legitimately, this tells you, this tells you how much I don't know, which is Significant, apparently. What— I'm sitting in the movie theater about to, uh, watch The Odyssey.

Okay.

Which is great, by the way.

Uh-huh.

And the previews for this come on, and I look over to my wife and I go, did you know that he wrote that? And she goes, no. And I go, neither did I.

You didn't know that he wrote that?

No. How— I'm telling you, that's how dumb I am.

Dude, there's, there's all kinds of lore around him, right? You know, he had to like sell his dog.

Yeah, I, I, I do now, but I didn't know that. How I didn't know, I don't know.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I, I knew all that, man. So here's, here's my issue with this movie, okay? It seems a little too meta for me. We're making a movie about a guy who wants to make a movie.

It's Seinfeld.

I I mean, like, look, I think, I think the Rocky cow has run out of teats.

Well, we'll see, because I promise you it'll do well in the box office.

It looks good.

It looks well done from the, from the trailer. It looks well done.

It does, it does look good. Um, but I don't want to watch it.

Will you?

No. Okay.

No.

Like, I, I, and I won't see The Odyssey either.

Why?

Because I've read it.

Yeah, I honestly, I— here's the thing. The reason I wanted to see The Odyssey is because I've never read it. Like, I didn't have to read it in high school, but there's, there's been like 3 other movies made about this, but I didn't want to see those.

Oh, the other ones are good.

I'm— I don't know, maybe they are. Let me tell you why I wanted to see this one.

The reason— This, this is, this is my problem. is I'm not, I'm not gonna go see it.

Sure. And I—

it's not because of any of the— what people were trying to make it political. I could care less about any of that.

I don't know.

I really don't care.

I don't either.

Um, about like what race is playing this part and who's playing that and like— but I don't care.

Yeah, I don't care either.

Like, one, like, okay, I don't think Nolan is as good as everybody says that he is.

That's a fair point.

I've read the book and I'm tired. And this is not— I'm not throwing arrows at you.

Sure.

I'm tired of everybody waiting for the movie to come out to actually enjoy a good piece of literature.

Okay. Well, it's not a good piece of literature.

It's an amazing piece of literature.

The classics suck. All of them suck.

No, they don't.

Yes, they do.

Are you kidding me?

No.

How many classics have you read?

Enough to know.

Which ones?

Which ones?

Which ones?

I mean—

Which ones have you read that sucked?

All of the ones that I've read sucked.

No, that's not listing anything. Because here's why. Which ones have you read?

I've read plenty.

Which ones?

Well, which ones do you want me to— like, it doesn't matter. They're all—

It does.

No, it doesn't.

I don't think you've read any of those.

No, well, I had to in high school. I've read plenty of them. Like what?

Name one.

Pride and Prejudice.

Pride and Prejudice?

Yes.

You read that?

Yes.

And it sucked?

Terrible.

Really?

Yeah.

What sucked about it?

Uh, it just wasn't interesting. It had no value to me. And the same with like, if I would have read The Odyssey, I would have been like, this is stupid. The whole premise of the whole thing is stupid.

The whole premise of The Odyssey is stupid?

Yes.

What? Okay. Why, why is it stupid?

I just, it just doesn't, I don't know. Like it's, the movie was good and I'll tell you why the movie was good.

The movie was good.

The movie was good.

But the source material sucked. Well, it did.

It did. The movie was good because I was impressed with the way it was produced. And that to me was the only reason I went to go see The Odyssey. It— what, do you realize it's the first movie that was completely filmed in OmniMax 70mm film?

I could really give a fart. To me, that's interesting. Why?

Because like it— because they had to produce this thing in a very interesting way because it's huge amounts of film.

Sure.

And size of film. They had to like build boxes around the cameras themselves just to make sure the sound didn't screw up whenever they were—

Amazing stories about all sorts of ways that different films were made. I mean, like, okay, well, so this is one of them. We did the same thing with Avatar. I mean, it was— no movie had ever been filmed like that before. Sure.

I liked it.

We did the same thing with 2001: A Space Odyssey, no film had ever been filmed like that before. And I don't care. I don't care because it doesn't make it, like, again, back to the point, Rocky filmed on a shoestring budget, one of the most incredible movies ever made about a guy who loses a fight.

Sure.

That's it. And why was it a good story? It wasn't because of the cinematography. It wasn't because of the sound. It was just a good story. That's it.

I will take back— I got to thinking about it now that you asked. There was one classic that I liked.

Okay.

To Kill a Mockingbird.

It's an incredible book.

I like that one.

Yeah. But like, the classics are the classics for a reason.

Yeah, I guess. But like, I also read The Great Gatsby. I hated it.

Uh-huh. Like, there's nothing wrong with hating a story, but like engaging with it on a level to where why you understand why it's so important. to why, when it came out.

I get that. Okay, that part I can understand that it did hold value to the time that it was written. But now I don't, it's not good now.

But like, here's the thing. Have you ever read The Count of Monte Cristo?

Yes. Incredible book. Yes.

Better than any film adaptation that has Ever been made about it.

Sure, and and the film adaptation, at least the there's one that I prefer. The one that I prefer, which is probably the newest one, is pretty good.

There's one that just came out last month.

There what that one?

Okay. Was on for that. It's a French version. No, but it's supposed to be really good. I haven't seen it, but it looks good.

Sure.

Um, but like and then like I mean Alexandre Dumas. I mean. probably like one of the most impressive writers for— I mean, like, you start looking at like The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo, Man in the Iron Mask. I mean, all 3 books that are considered—

They're great movies.

Classics in literature.

Sure. Okay.

Right?

I wouldn't necessarily— I hadn't put that in a classics category for— I hadn't put that one in a I'm thinking more of, like, The Odyssey and, uh, the— what's the— what's the stupid one with the whale?

The whale?

Yeah. Dick Tracy. That's the one. Like, Dick Tracy?

Yeah.

No. What am I thinking?

Dick Tracy is a detective.

That's the one? That's not the one. What's the one with the big whale?

Oh.

Come on.

Moby Dick.

Moby Dick. I had Dick right. I didn't miss the D on that one. Take that, I see. Look, it's late, y'all.

You may have negated your entire argument.

Maybe. Maybe. But like, that's a stupid book.

No, it's not.

Yes.

What's the point of the book?

I couldn't even tell you. It's so stupid. It was awful.

Oh my gosh.

I don't enjoy that kind of stuff.

Like it, okay. It seems like you are the antithesis of your wife.

Oh, she hates the classics too.

Like, but like it does, it seems like you don't enjoy reading.

Um, that is not untrue, but here's why. Uh-huh. I had to read the classics and I hated 'em. So for me, uh, I, and so it was twofold. Number one, I didn't enjoy the stories. Except for Kill to Kill Market. I did like that.

Okay, like let me let me go through a couple just to see if you've read them. Treasure Island.

Never read it.

Never read it.

Watched the movie. Animated version. Of course you did.

Robinson Crusoe.

I've read that one.

Uh huh.

Yeah.

And?

Like the movie. Like the movie. But I didn't like the book.

This is the thing is like how can you like the movie and not like the book?

Because it had Dick Van Dyke in it.

Dick Van Dyke was in Robinson Crusoe?

USN? Yes.

USN?

Robinson Crusoe USN.

You never saw that? No.

Oh, it's so good.

So not even like a full faith version of Robinson Crusoe?

No.

Okay. Um, let me think. Old Yeller.

Oh, okay. I read Old Yeller. Yep. But I, I didn't like the ending, so I hated it.

But you read it.

I read it.