May 6, 2026 • 18 mins
Orlando Sentinel columnist Scott Maxwell shares with us his latest articles, including how Orlando and Las Vegas lead the nation’s housing shortage, along with "Bro-flakes" on the rise in Florida, the guys who are angry, loud, entitled, and convinced they’re victims.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Is your four o'clock you wor wi in somebody said
they cleared some stuff in their computer and it started
working again, So give them another shots.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Nice.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
And I also heard from our it department nationwide they're
they're aware of it, they're working on it. It's not
just real radio. They're not targeting uts. It's every station
dealing wi in. That is your four o'clock. You were
go to real radio dot if him and send that
away for your chance on one thousand bucks.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Welcome back. I'm Jim. There's deb Jack is here as well.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Yeah, and in every single Wednesday around four twenty, we
invite this gentleman to drop by to talk about a
few things. He writes with The Orlando Sentinel. You can
read his columns Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. You guys, give
it up good loud for sweet heat the truth dragon.
Mister Scott Maxwell day from the diving room, his booze,
are you flexing?
Speaker 4 (00:48):
Are you bourbon?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Are you bourbon flexing today? So there's the uh oh watch.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
Oh yeah, here's the one we had last weekend. Lay
very nice.
Speaker 5 (00:59):
These are actually just the leftovers that don't fit in
the bourbon cabin.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Oh do flex. That's a double flex in the business.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
This is a cast strength though if you Uh, that's
a good one.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Where'd you get that one? Do you remember? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (01:16):
Is that you?
Speaker 2 (01:17):
We?
Speaker 3 (01:18):
That was a gift presented by the Jim Colbert Show. Uh,
when he filled in when you were out.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
Oh nice, I like that, very good, very kind.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
You and I did not talk this morning.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Usually on the days that you are gonna be on
the program, we have a little chat about what you
wrote about. I do not know at all what the
column is about today, so springing on me, big boy?
Speaker 5 (01:36):
Yeah, Well, I think exciting and I'll tell you too.
There's the one I posted today, which is basically just
about it's another sad story about housing. And I know
every time we talk about this, your texting service usually
lights up because the cost of housing is something that
resonates with everybody.
Speaker 6 (01:56):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (01:56):
There's an Every year there's a group called the National
Affordable Housing Coalition puts out a report about where the
best and least amount of affordable housing is. And affordable housing,
by the way, does not mean like low income housing.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
It just be like housing that people can afford.
Speaker 5 (02:14):
And uh, once again, Orlando was dead last and tied
with once again Las Vegas. And if you didn't read it,
I would like you to guess, for every one hundred
units of needed housing, of affordable housing, how many units
do you think Orlando has the metro Orlando Central Florida
(02:35):
has available.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
For every house that's needed, how many do we have for.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
Every one hundred houses needed? How many do you think
her a three?
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Oh? Come on, dude, Wait, you made that face when
he said three.
Speaker 5 (02:50):
Well, I mean that's he's not He's not let anybody
go under him with that one.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
For sure.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
I love I'll go forty oh go seven.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
Dev winds it is thirteen and and flip that around.
Speaker 5 (03:06):
That means for every eighty seven families that are looking
for a house, you know, in the sort of the
affordable range, or an apartment or condo, they cannot find it.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
And there's two sides to this equation.
Speaker 6 (03:18):
You know.
Speaker 5 (03:19):
One of the things that we've talked over and over
about again is about wages. There's a reason Las Vegas
and Orlando are tied for dead laugh.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
It's because our wages here blow chunks.
Speaker 5 (03:30):
But the other side of it is just housing, and
we don't let enough housing be built. I should say,
let and encourage enough housing. And you know, this is
an issue I've kind of come around on zoning. It's
it's a little bit outdated in urban areas, and there's
government sometimes has all these rules about letting, you know,
(03:50):
developers come in and build it. If somebody wants to
build one hundred units on a lot that normally has
five units, that's good for housing stock. And I think
we have to allow more of that in places like
where it's urban, not out you know, where Gym's living,
because I know there's a reason you moved out there.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
So you don't have anybody around for forty five acres.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Yeah, yeah, that's pretty much exactly what it is. I
I bought a bunch of acreage and move right to
the dead center of it. And then just but we
got to do that.
Speaker 5 (04:20):
And then and frankly, it's going to take some subsidized housing.
And I think there are some people go, oh, Maxwell,
you're talking about subsidies.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
We already subsidized housing.
Speaker 5 (04:27):
And I got to tell you one project that you
all may remember that just still steams my clams from
two years ago was when the Orlando Magic came in
and said they wanted to do an entertainment district. And
this is supposed to have you knows, supposed to have
a convention center, it's supposed to have retail, but it's
also supposed to have a housing complex. And the city
of Orlando gave him, I can't remember, it was either
twenty forty million dollars worth of tax breaks and incentives
(04:51):
and exchange. For all that money, they promised to make
ten of their three hundred plus units affordable housing. Ten
The number came out to I think three point seven percent.
So that's not the kind of subsidies that I think
helps folks around.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
And the other thing is I saw that project they
started on Paramour years and years ago. I want to
say it was two or four. They built the spec
house and that actually was in the paper today and
the overhead shot you can see where it was supposed
to be. And I think, is this the same house
you've been talking about Dember.
Speaker 6 (05:21):
Yeah, the one that I think it's shan Rose her district,
and they called it affordable housing where the prices started
at three hundred and eighty thousand dollars.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Yeah, that house has been sitting there, untouched, unlived in,
and on everything for like twenty years because they ran
into some they ran into some financing issues, then there
were some political issues, and then there was COVID. So
it's just been kicked down the road for a while.
But that's supposed to be happening down there, I think
in the Paramour area if I remember.
Speaker 5 (05:47):
Right, Yeah, And I think what's needed is just everybody.
Part of what got me thinking about this is there's
a church over in Pine Hills that recently made news
because they said they had a bunch of land and
they were trying to decide what to do with it.
And this church decided they wanted to build a three
hundred units of affordable housing. And this got a little
bit of carping from some neighbors and some other people
(06:09):
who said, why does a church want to get into
the housing business?
Speaker 4 (06:12):
But my general thought is bring it on.
Speaker 5 (06:14):
The more the merrier, you know, if somebody wants to
do it, I don't care where it's a church, whether
it's another nonprofit, whether it's a for profit developer. We
need more housing. And there's a there's a book called
Homelessness is a Housing Problem, and it sounds like pretty obvious,
but there's a story this author shared with me a
group of Orlando folks fe years ago. It always stuck
with me. He said, imagine a game of musical chairs.
(06:36):
There's ten people roaming around ten chairs. I mean, excuse me,
ten people going around eight chairs and two people, one
who has let's say a disability and one who has
mental health problem.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
The music stops. Those two don't get their chairs.
Speaker 5 (06:50):
The question he posted to the audience is why do
you think those two people didn't get there? It didn't
get seats and people. Most people would say, well, because
they've got disabilities. He would say, no, the answer is
because there weren't enough chairs. And I actually thought it
was a pretty good point that we we shouldn't have,
you know, scrambling so that the you know, the least
fit are the ones that get left out. There should
(07:11):
just be enough houses, whether that's government, whether it's the
private sector, and I think at thirteen for every one hundred,
it's pretty clear that we're not doing that.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Let me ask you a question, because I do not
know the answer to this. Scott, this Hope, Florida thing
that Desantas and his wife cooked up, is this, is
that what that's supposed to do? Because isn't wasn't the
entire idea of that is to get people off of
government assistants and get churches involved with providing housing like that,
And isn't that kind of what churches are supposed to
do is offer some type of solitude to people who
(07:39):
can't offer it to themselves. I've always thought that's kind
of what part of the mission for churches was as
community outreach.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
Yeah, I think that.
Speaker 5 (07:48):
I don't know that Hope Larter was necessarily housings first,
but yes, definitely, it was about supposedly encouraging the notion
that private nonprofit groups could fill the gap that.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
Government could not.
Speaker 5 (08:00):
As you may know, it didn't turn out that Hope
Florida did a whole lot.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
It looked like it was set up for other purposes.
Speaker 5 (08:08):
But yeah, and I got to tell you there are
a lot of nonprofit groups that really do a lot.
I think one you've heard of before, Shepherd's Hope. Yes,
here in Central Florida. A lot of people do not
realize that is the largest privately run medical clinic in
the entire state of Florida, and it's run by a
faith based nonprofit. All they do is bring in volunteer
doctors and nurses, and I'm not just talking about general physicians.
(08:31):
They have on collegiests to come in, you know, like
every two week and if you think you've got cancer,
and all they do is treat people who don't who
can't afford health insurance or don't have health insurance. So
there are a lot of faith based groups that are step.
I'd say most of the groups I work with end
up being faith based for one reason or another. And
maybe not most, but a lot. But yeah, there is
a lot of that. But there needs to be more
(08:52):
because once upon a time, government sort of served as
a safety net and we have very much gotten away
from it.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
I just got a text in I want you to
you know, just kind of excuse me. Sure it says
this blank hole is blanking delusional. They are overbuilding in
this state and not enough people to buy or rent. Well,
the math doesn't really add up to that, does it.
I mean that math is is there are more people
in the state the need housing, and the housing unfortunately
is not accessible to most people because the starting price
(09:19):
for a home in the state's around four fifty, is
it not?
Speaker 5 (09:22):
Oh yeah, h yes, And I think the starting rent
is like nineteen hundred dollars for basic stuff. So you've
got the profanity down right, sir. Now maybe check the facts.
If we had too much house that takes so much
treckth everybody would have a cheap house.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
That's the whole point. Housing has gone crazy.
Speaker 5 (09:41):
When I moved here and Jim and I lived in
a similar neighborhood back when we didn't know each other,
twenty five years ago, I bought a four bedroom house
with a pool for one hundred and twenty five thousand
dollars ye in an unincorporated Maitland. Right now, that same
house is going to be selling for those sorts of
four hundred thousand to a million. That is not near downtown,
(10:04):
that is not near anything else, that's unincorporated Seminole County.
We've written about this before. They are this uber driver
I profiled a while ago who's moved out to Polk
County and this neighborhood. They had to pay three hundred
and fifty to four hundred thousand dollars for nothing houses
out in Polk County. If we had too much housing,
they'd be giving it away. And we stated to sky High.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Yeah, the fact is they're building the housing because so
many people are moving to this state. Matter of fact,
one of the reasons that De Santa City redistricted in
the middle of this in the middle of the decade
is because we've gotten two million more people in and
that's one of the reasons. So, yeah, your math doesn't
add up, boss, You got to look at your facts
a little bit better.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
That doesn't really work, Although.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
It is interesting keep an eye on those stats. We
have been.
Speaker 5 (10:48):
Florida has been one of the fastest growing states ever
since the invention.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
Of air conditioning. There's no doubt about it.
Speaker 5 (10:52):
That didn't have anything to do with ron status anymore
than I had to do with Charlie Chris Rick Scott.
People always wanted to go to Florida, but for the
first time in like a half a century, that population
growth has started to slow over the past year, to
the extent that even like the Chamber of Commerce is
sounding an alarm saying that people and once again to
your callers point, can't afford to live here. Well, that
(11:14):
this used to be the land of cheap and now
people are realizing, first of all, I can't get you,
I can't get a starter home for less than half
a million dollars, and don't get me started on property.
Speaker 4 (11:22):
Sure.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
And the other thing do is Scott, I mean they're visiting,
trust me. Did you see Disney's numbers and the revenue
for ridiculous? Right, they're definitely coming here, they're just not staying.
And the gentleman who wrote that text also consider this.
A house is a house. That's a structure. You got
to put it somewhere. Have you priced land in this state?
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Dog?
Speaker 1 (11:40):
You should look around a little bit before you send
stupid text, because land in this state is unbelievably expensive.
Housing is just a structure. You got to put it somewhere.
And I don't care if you're buying a mobile home
when that land costs an average of what one hundred
and eighty thousand dollars for a quarter acre or half
an acre or whatever it is. It doesn't matter what
your structure is.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Good luck.
Speaker 5 (12:01):
And another thing that drives up housing costs more in
tourism areas like Arizona and Nevada and Florida is corporations
that are buying these entire neighborhoods in some cases of
housing and basically turning them into Airbnb money making opportunities
it's America. If they want to do it, that's fine,
(12:21):
but that's all houses that come off the market.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
That's what increases demand.
Speaker 5 (12:26):
And by the way, even if you'd like think, I'm well,
I've never want what you'd call affordable housing. You want
more affordable housing, because when there's more of that on
the market, everybody's.
Speaker 4 (12:35):
Housing prices goes down.
Speaker 5 (12:37):
When the bar gets lowered at the bottom, it gets
lowered everywhere else. And right now, we've talked about this
time before. It's hard for me to see my kids
owning their own house, certainly not at age twenty four,
twenty five, or twenty six like we did. That is
so far out of reach for people in these you know,
regular white collar starting jobs.
Speaker 4 (12:55):
They're just not able to do it.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
You know, the average age for the first first time
home buyer is right now for the first I'm ever
in the US, I don't forty years old. That's forty
years old, Scotti. Forty years old in the United States
of America is the average age for the first time
home buyer, not in Florida or Alabama or Arkansas, all
around the nation. That is completely insane. It used to
(13:17):
be like late twenties early thirties. It's a full decade
farther now, and I still think that number is maybe
a little skewed because I think even at forty maybe
it's a little out of reach.
Speaker 4 (13:27):
And think about that.
Speaker 5 (13:28):
What you're talking about is what we commonly know we
identify as the American dream, right, That's like what everybody says,
if you're living in America, you should be able to do,
and that keeps getting more and more delayed and deferred.
Speaker 4 (13:40):
And we haven't even gotten into savings in retirement.
Speaker 5 (13:43):
I am scared to death that our generation is going
to be eating cat food and about thirty years because
the amount of people who do not have any amount
of substantial money saved up. We're long past the days
of companies providing pensions and party investments into four one case,
you're basically on your own. So we're headed for financial problems,
(14:05):
especially after the boomer generation.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Yeah, one hundred percent, man, it is. It is sketchy
af out there as I look around. Of course, I've
always been really interested in real estate, so I even
though if I'm not buying or selling anything, I'm always
paying attention to the market and what's going up and
what's going down, and I almost don't care where it
is in central Florida, even in Pine Hills, which was
an area that almost nobody wanted to live in. Now
(14:27):
I just saw a thing today where they're kind of
revitalizing Pine Hills because they see a possibility with people
moving in when no other options, and opportunity to maybe
gentrify part of that city and kind of bring it
back to life. Because when they started, that city was
basically for the people who are you know, working at Martin,
Marrietta and those areas out there. They thought that was
gonna be like the newest, hottest neighborhood and then you know,
(14:47):
just time does its thing and off we go. But
I've even heard they're doing that.
Speaker 5 (14:52):
Yeah, I think, I think, and we need to do
a lot more building. That's the bottom line everywhere. And
I think in urban areas we have to go up.
And I know sometimes people.
Speaker 4 (14:59):
Don't like the idea, but uh, you can't keep going out.
That's sprawl. We don't have enough room for it.
Speaker 5 (15:05):
We don't have enough people can't afford to get to
and from work. Yeah, and before we go, Jim, I
got one other thing I just wanted to throw you
it's a column I just posted, uh before I got
on here.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
It's the term I have.
Speaker 5 (15:15):
I thought I coined it, but after I looked it up,
somebody else came up with it.
Speaker 4 (15:19):
You're have you ever heard the term bro flake?
Speaker 2 (15:24):
I saw it today.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
I really thought I.
Speaker 5 (15:29):
Was super keen, and I then right before I posted
the column, I looked it up and saw some people
have used it before. But I was thinking about it's
all these guys who are so aggressive, and you know,
I want to tell you exactly what it is and
basically often why they have it so tough, particularly white
guys have.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
It so tough.
Speaker 5 (15:43):
But then as soon as you say anything back to them,
they get so triggered and they get so upset. And
the reason I was writing about this is I think
Florida is sort of the state of the rise of
the broth flake, and and one of the I think James,
I think DeSantis and uth Meyer sort of symbolized this.
But the name I want to put on your radar,
and I think he's already on your radar, Jim, is
(16:03):
this candidate named James Fishback.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (16:05):
Yeah, this guy, I mean looks like I'll say, an
extremists by any by any definition. There's questions about whether
he's even a legal candidate here in this state. But
he's an absolute nobody, dropping anti semitic talk about, you know,
watch out for the Jews and all this stuff. And
yet this guy is starting to build more of a following,
(16:26):
especially among young white men on college campuses, to the
extent that the most recent poll has him ahead of,
for instance, the lieutenant governor Ron de Santis, his own
lieutenant governor.
Speaker 4 (16:38):
This guy is now out pulling.
Speaker 5 (16:40):
Now it's still way everybody's still way behind byra Donalds,
who's looking like forty percent, but this guy's now at
nine percent. And I think you never would have seen
this two or four years ago, maybe before Trump, but
certainly before the sayanas and that's the broth play game.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
And he's the guy who was banned from waffle house,
right yea, yeah.
Speaker 6 (16:56):
Yeah, he's the guy who also joined tender to meet
young ladies.
Speaker 5 (17:04):
There is something else weird about like a college his
involvement with a college debate team. I mean, there's there's
nothing about this guy that seems normal.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
None and none of it, and none of that matters anymore.
Speaker 5 (17:14):
Because he's going out with this grievance to her. He's
going out and you know, telling young white guys, you
are being posed, whether it's by dark skinned people, whether
it's by Jewish people, you're you're you're not getting everything.
Speaker 4 (17:25):
You're doing life. White guys are the only guys.
Speaker 5 (17:28):
Who could be discriminated against in America anymore.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
And I'm here to follow. What he actually says is
to follow the Ronda Santa's plan.
Speaker 6 (17:35):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (17:35):
And that's starting to resonate, and uh suddenly you have
him out pulling the lieutenant governor.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Wow, that's Jay Collins.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Now now it seems clear why they've
for so many years wanted to defund public education.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Yeah, I mean what do you mean for wanted to
they have done it is.
Speaker 5 (17:52):
Currently whitewashing his history books and censoring, uh, you know,
discussions because they don't want the facts that contradict the
these narratives being out there.
Speaker 4 (18:01):
And that's a grow lakery.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Yeah, man, that's the word you should coin there, buddy.
Speaker 4 (18:10):
All right, I'll stick with it, all right.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Good low for Scott Maxwell guys.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
Yeah, alright, seven nine fifteen you buddy, as always, We'll
see you soon. Hit that bourbon call me all right
four seven nine one six one four one win. By
the way, is your four o'clock keyword w I N
Go to real Radio dot I him and send that
away for your chance on one thousand bucks back at
a second more than Jim Colbert Joe.
Speaker 6 (18:31):
Our constant mispronunciations and poor grammar are clear indicators that
we are not AI Real Radio one O four point
one guaranteed human.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
This weather report is brought to you by Mills Air.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
If its Central FOURDA Fox thirty five Storm Team urologist
snow Bourgon Here.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
We're looking at a blend of clouds and sun over
the next few days. Some record heat coming in for Thursday.
Temperatures are going to be in the upper hindies. Record
in Orlando for tomorrow is ninety
Is your four o'clock you wor wi in somebody said
they cleared some stuff in their computer and it started
working again, So give them another shots.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Nice.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
And I also heard from our it department nationwide they're
they're aware of it, they're working on it. It's not
just real radio. They're not targeting uts. It's every station
dealing wi in. That is your four o'clock. You were
go to real radio dot if him and send that
away for your chance on one thousand bucks.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Welcome back. I'm Jim. There's deb Jack is here as well.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Yeah, and in every single Wednesday around four twenty, we
invite this gentleman to drop by to talk about a
few things. He writes with The Orlando Sentinel. You can
read his columns Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. You guys, give
it up good loud for sweet heat the truth dragon.
Mister Scott Maxwell day from the diving room, his booze,
are you flexing?
Speaker 4 (00:48):
Are you bourbon?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Are you bourbon flexing today? So there's the uh oh watch.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
Oh yeah, here's the one we had last weekend. Lay
very nice.
Speaker 5 (00:59):
These are actually just the leftovers that don't fit in
the bourbon cabin.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Oh do flex. That's a double flex in the business.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
This is a cast strength though if you Uh, that's
a good one.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Where'd you get that one? Do you remember? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (01:16):
Is that you?
Speaker 2 (01:17):
We?
Speaker 3 (01:18):
That was a gift presented by the Jim Colbert Show. Uh,
when he filled in when you were out.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
Oh nice, I like that, very good, very kind.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
You and I did not talk this morning.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Usually on the days that you are gonna be on
the program, we have a little chat about what you
wrote about. I do not know at all what the
column is about today, so springing on me, big boy?
Speaker 5 (01:36):
Yeah, Well, I think exciting and I'll tell you too.
There's the one I posted today, which is basically just
about it's another sad story about housing. And I know
every time we talk about this, your texting service usually
lights up because the cost of housing is something that
resonates with everybody.
Speaker 6 (01:56):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (01:56):
There's an Every year there's a group called the National
Affordable Housing Coalition puts out a report about where the
best and least amount of affordable housing is. And affordable housing,
by the way, does not mean like low income housing.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
It just be like housing that people can afford.
Speaker 5 (02:14):
And uh, once again, Orlando was dead last and tied
with once again Las Vegas. And if you didn't read it,
I would like you to guess, for every one hundred
units of needed housing, of affordable housing, how many units
do you think Orlando has the metro Orlando Central Florida
(02:35):
has available.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
For every house that's needed, how many do we have for.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
Every one hundred houses needed? How many do you think
her a three?
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Oh? Come on, dude, Wait, you made that face when
he said three.
Speaker 5 (02:50):
Well, I mean that's he's not He's not let anybody
go under him with that one.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
For sure.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
I love I'll go forty oh go seven.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
Dev winds it is thirteen and and flip that around.
Speaker 5 (03:06):
That means for every eighty seven families that are looking
for a house, you know, in the sort of the
affordable range, or an apartment or condo, they cannot find it.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
And there's two sides to this equation.
Speaker 6 (03:18):
You know.
Speaker 5 (03:19):
One of the things that we've talked over and over
about again is about wages. There's a reason Las Vegas
and Orlando are tied for dead laugh.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
It's because our wages here blow chunks.
Speaker 5 (03:30):
But the other side of it is just housing, and
we don't let enough housing be built. I should say,
let and encourage enough housing. And you know, this is
an issue I've kind of come around on zoning. It's
it's a little bit outdated in urban areas, and there's
government sometimes has all these rules about letting, you know,
(03:50):
developers come in and build it. If somebody wants to
build one hundred units on a lot that normally has
five units, that's good for housing stock. And I think
we have to allow more of that in places like
where it's urban, not out you know, where Gym's living,
because I know there's a reason you moved out there.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
So you don't have anybody around for forty five acres.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Yeah, yeah, that's pretty much exactly what it is. I
I bought a bunch of acreage and move right to
the dead center of it. And then just but we
got to do that.
Speaker 5 (04:20):
And then and frankly, it's going to take some subsidized housing.
And I think there are some people go, oh, Maxwell,
you're talking about subsidies.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
We already subsidized housing.
Speaker 5 (04:27):
And I got to tell you one project that you
all may remember that just still steams my clams from
two years ago was when the Orlando Magic came in
and said they wanted to do an entertainment district. And
this is supposed to have you knows, supposed to have
a convention center, it's supposed to have retail, but it's
also supposed to have a housing complex. And the city
of Orlando gave him, I can't remember, it was either
twenty forty million dollars worth of tax breaks and incentives
(04:51):
and exchange. For all that money, they promised to make
ten of their three hundred plus units affordable housing. Ten
The number came out to I think three point seven percent.
So that's not the kind of subsidies that I think
helps folks around.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
And the other thing is I saw that project they
started on Paramour years and years ago. I want to
say it was two or four. They built the spec
house and that actually was in the paper today and
the overhead shot you can see where it was supposed
to be. And I think, is this the same house
you've been talking about Dember.
Speaker 6 (05:21):
Yeah, the one that I think it's shan Rose her district,
and they called it affordable housing where the prices started
at three hundred and eighty thousand dollars.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Yeah, that house has been sitting there, untouched, unlived in,
and on everything for like twenty years because they ran
into some they ran into some financing issues, then there
were some political issues, and then there was COVID. So
it's just been kicked down the road for a while.
But that's supposed to be happening down there, I think
in the Paramour area if I remember.
Speaker 5 (05:47):
Right, Yeah, And I think what's needed is just everybody.
Part of what got me thinking about this is there's
a church over in Pine Hills that recently made news
because they said they had a bunch of land and
they were trying to decide what to do with it.
And this church decided they wanted to build a three
hundred units of affordable housing. And this got a little
bit of carping from some neighbors and some other people
(06:09):
who said, why does a church want to get into
the housing business?
Speaker 4 (06:12):
But my general thought is bring it on.
Speaker 5 (06:14):
The more the merrier, you know, if somebody wants to
do it, I don't care where it's a church, whether
it's another nonprofit, whether it's a for profit developer. We
need more housing. And there's a there's a book called
Homelessness is a Housing Problem, and it sounds like pretty obvious,
but there's a story this author shared with me a
group of Orlando folks fe years ago. It always stuck
with me. He said, imagine a game of musical chairs.
(06:36):
There's ten people roaming around ten chairs. I mean, excuse me,
ten people going around eight chairs and two people, one
who has let's say a disability and one who has
mental health problem.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
The music stops. Those two don't get their chairs.
Speaker 5 (06:50):
The question he posted to the audience is why do
you think those two people didn't get there? It didn't
get seats and people. Most people would say, well, because
they've got disabilities. He would say, no, the answer is
because there weren't enough chairs. And I actually thought it
was a pretty good point that we we shouldn't have,
you know, scrambling so that the you know, the least
fit are the ones that get left out. There should
(07:11):
just be enough houses, whether that's government, whether it's the
private sector, and I think at thirteen for every one hundred,
it's pretty clear that we're not doing that.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Let me ask you a question, because I do not
know the answer to this. Scott, this Hope, Florida thing
that Desantas and his wife cooked up, is this, is
that what that's supposed to do? Because isn't wasn't the
entire idea of that is to get people off of
government assistants and get churches involved with providing housing like that,
And isn't that kind of what churches are supposed to
do is offer some type of solitude to people who
(07:39):
can't offer it to themselves. I've always thought that's kind
of what part of the mission for churches was as
community outreach.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
Yeah, I think that.
Speaker 5 (07:48):
I don't know that Hope Larter was necessarily housings first,
but yes, definitely, it was about supposedly encouraging the notion
that private nonprofit groups could fill the gap that.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
Government could not.
Speaker 5 (08:00):
As you may know, it didn't turn out that Hope
Florida did a whole lot.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
It looked like it was set up for other purposes.
Speaker 5 (08:08):
But yeah, and I got to tell you there are
a lot of nonprofit groups that really do a lot.
I think one you've heard of before, Shepherd's Hope. Yes,
here in Central Florida. A lot of people do not
realize that is the largest privately run medical clinic in
the entire state of Florida, and it's run by a
faith based nonprofit. All they do is bring in volunteer
doctors and nurses, and I'm not just talking about general physicians.
(08:31):
They have on collegiests to come in, you know, like
every two week and if you think you've got cancer,
and all they do is treat people who don't who
can't afford health insurance or don't have health insurance. So
there are a lot of faith based groups that are step.
I'd say most of the groups I work with end
up being faith based for one reason or another. And
maybe not most, but a lot. But yeah, there is
a lot of that. But there needs to be more
(08:52):
because once upon a time, government sort of served as
a safety net and we have very much gotten away
from it.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
I just got a text in I want you to
you know, just kind of excuse me. Sure it says
this blank hole is blanking delusional. They are overbuilding in
this state and not enough people to buy or rent. Well,
the math doesn't really add up to that, does it.
I mean that math is is there are more people
in the state the need housing, and the housing unfortunately
is not accessible to most people because the starting price
(09:19):
for a home in the state's around four fifty, is
it not?
Speaker 5 (09:22):
Oh yeah, h yes, And I think the starting rent
is like nineteen hundred dollars for basic stuff. So you've
got the profanity down right, sir. Now maybe check the facts.
If we had too much house that takes so much
treckth everybody would have a cheap house.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
That's the whole point. Housing has gone crazy.
Speaker 5 (09:41):
When I moved here and Jim and I lived in
a similar neighborhood back when we didn't know each other,
twenty five years ago, I bought a four bedroom house
with a pool for one hundred and twenty five thousand
dollars ye in an unincorporated Maitland. Right now, that same
house is going to be selling for those sorts of
four hundred thousand to a million. That is not near downtown,
(10:04):
that is not near anything else, that's unincorporated Seminole County.
We've written about this before. They are this uber driver
I profiled a while ago who's moved out to Polk
County and this neighborhood. They had to pay three hundred
and fifty to four hundred thousand dollars for nothing houses
out in Polk County. If we had too much housing,
they'd be giving it away. And we stated to sky High.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Yeah, the fact is they're building the housing because so
many people are moving to this state. Matter of fact,
one of the reasons that De Santa City redistricted in
the middle of this in the middle of the decade
is because we've gotten two million more people in and
that's one of the reasons. So, yeah, your math doesn't
add up, boss, You got to look at your facts
a little bit better.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
That doesn't really work, Although.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
It is interesting keep an eye on those stats. We
have been.
Speaker 5 (10:48):
Florida has been one of the fastest growing states ever
since the invention.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
Of air conditioning. There's no doubt about it.
Speaker 5 (10:52):
That didn't have anything to do with ron status anymore
than I had to do with Charlie Chris Rick Scott.
People always wanted to go to Florida, but for the
first time in like a half a century, that population
growth has started to slow over the past year, to
the extent that even like the Chamber of Commerce is
sounding an alarm saying that people and once again to
your callers point, can't afford to live here. Well, that
(11:14):
this used to be the land of cheap and now
people are realizing, first of all, I can't get you,
I can't get a starter home for less than half
a million dollars, and don't get me started on property.
Speaker 4 (11:22):
Sure.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
And the other thing do is Scott, I mean they're visiting,
trust me. Did you see Disney's numbers and the revenue
for ridiculous? Right, they're definitely coming here, they're just not staying.
And the gentleman who wrote that text also consider this.
A house is a house. That's a structure. You got
to put it somewhere. Have you priced land in this state?
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Dog?
Speaker 1 (11:40):
You should look around a little bit before you send
stupid text, because land in this state is unbelievably expensive.
Housing is just a structure. You got to put it somewhere.
And I don't care if you're buying a mobile home
when that land costs an average of what one hundred
and eighty thousand dollars for a quarter acre or half
an acre or whatever it is. It doesn't matter what
your structure is.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Good luck.
Speaker 5 (12:01):
And another thing that drives up housing costs more in
tourism areas like Arizona and Nevada and Florida is corporations
that are buying these entire neighborhoods in some cases of
housing and basically turning them into Airbnb money making opportunities
it's America. If they want to do it, that's fine,
(12:21):
but that's all houses that come off the market.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
That's what increases demand.
Speaker 5 (12:26):
And by the way, even if you'd like think, I'm well,
I've never want what you'd call affordable housing. You want
more affordable housing, because when there's more of that on
the market, everybody's.
Speaker 4 (12:35):
Housing prices goes down.
Speaker 5 (12:37):
When the bar gets lowered at the bottom, it gets
lowered everywhere else. And right now, we've talked about this
time before. It's hard for me to see my kids
owning their own house, certainly not at age twenty four,
twenty five, or twenty six like we did. That is
so far out of reach for people in these you know,
regular white collar starting jobs.
Speaker 4 (12:55):
They're just not able to do it.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
You know, the average age for the first first time
home buyer is right now for the first I'm ever
in the US, I don't forty years old. That's forty
years old, Scotti. Forty years old in the United States
of America is the average age for the first time
home buyer, not in Florida or Alabama or Arkansas, all
around the nation. That is completely insane. It used to
(13:17):
be like late twenties early thirties. It's a full decade
farther now, and I still think that number is maybe
a little skewed because I think even at forty maybe
it's a little out of reach.
Speaker 4 (13:27):
And think about that.
Speaker 5 (13:28):
What you're talking about is what we commonly know we
identify as the American dream, right, That's like what everybody says,
if you're living in America, you should be able to do,
and that keeps getting more and more delayed and deferred.
Speaker 4 (13:40):
And we haven't even gotten into savings in retirement.
Speaker 5 (13:43):
I am scared to death that our generation is going
to be eating cat food and about thirty years because
the amount of people who do not have any amount
of substantial money saved up. We're long past the days
of companies providing pensions and party investments into four one case,
you're basically on your own. So we're headed for financial problems,
(14:05):
especially after the boomer generation.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Yeah, one hundred percent, man, it is. It is sketchy
af out there as I look around. Of course, I've
always been really interested in real estate, so I even
though if I'm not buying or selling anything, I'm always
paying attention to the market and what's going up and
what's going down, and I almost don't care where it
is in central Florida, even in Pine Hills, which was
an area that almost nobody wanted to live in. Now
(14:27):
I just saw a thing today where they're kind of
revitalizing Pine Hills because they see a possibility with people
moving in when no other options, and opportunity to maybe
gentrify part of that city and kind of bring it
back to life. Because when they started, that city was
basically for the people who are you know, working at Martin,
Marrietta and those areas out there. They thought that was
gonna be like the newest, hottest neighborhood and then you know,
(14:47):
just time does its thing and off we go. But
I've even heard they're doing that.
Speaker 5 (14:52):
Yeah, I think, I think, and we need to do
a lot more building. That's the bottom line everywhere. And
I think in urban areas we have to go up.
And I know sometimes people.
Speaker 4 (14:59):
Don't like the idea, but uh, you can't keep going out.
That's sprawl. We don't have enough room for it.
Speaker 5 (15:05):
We don't have enough people can't afford to get to
and from work. Yeah, and before we go, Jim, I
got one other thing I just wanted to throw you
it's a column I just posted, uh before I got
on here.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
It's the term I have.
Speaker 5 (15:15):
I thought I coined it, but after I looked it up,
somebody else came up with it.
Speaker 4 (15:19):
You're have you ever heard the term bro flake?
Speaker 2 (15:24):
I saw it today.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
I really thought I.
Speaker 5 (15:29):
Was super keen, and I then right before I posted
the column, I looked it up and saw some people
have used it before. But I was thinking about it's
all these guys who are so aggressive, and you know,
I want to tell you exactly what it is and
basically often why they have it so tough, particularly white
guys have.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
It so tough.
Speaker 5 (15:43):
But then as soon as you say anything back to them,
they get so triggered and they get so upset. And
the reason I was writing about this is I think
Florida is sort of the state of the rise of
the broth flake, and and one of the I think James,
I think DeSantis and uth Meyer sort of symbolized this.
But the name I want to put on your radar,
and I think he's already on your radar, Jim, is
(16:03):
this candidate named James Fishback.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (16:05):
Yeah, this guy, I mean looks like I'll say, an
extremists by any by any definition. There's questions about whether
he's even a legal candidate here in this state. But
he's an absolute nobody, dropping anti semitic talk about, you know,
watch out for the Jews and all this stuff. And
yet this guy is starting to build more of a following,
(16:26):
especially among young white men on college campuses, to the
extent that the most recent poll has him ahead of,
for instance, the lieutenant governor Ron de Santis, his own
lieutenant governor.
Speaker 4 (16:38):
This guy is now out pulling.
Speaker 5 (16:40):
Now it's still way everybody's still way behind byra Donalds,
who's looking like forty percent, but this guy's now at
nine percent. And I think you never would have seen
this two or four years ago, maybe before Trump, but
certainly before the sayanas and that's the broth play game.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
And he's the guy who was banned from waffle house,
right yea, yeah.
Speaker 6 (16:56):
Yeah, he's the guy who also joined tender to meet
young ladies.
Speaker 5 (17:04):
There is something else weird about like a college his
involvement with a college debate team. I mean, there's there's
nothing about this guy that seems normal.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
None and none of it, and none of that matters anymore.
Speaker 5 (17:14):
Because he's going out with this grievance to her. He's
going out and you know, telling young white guys, you
are being posed, whether it's by dark skinned people, whether
it's by Jewish people, you're you're you're not getting everything.
Speaker 4 (17:25):
You're doing life. White guys are the only guys.
Speaker 5 (17:28):
Who could be discriminated against in America anymore.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
And I'm here to follow. What he actually says is
to follow the Ronda Santa's plan.
Speaker 6 (17:35):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (17:35):
And that's starting to resonate, and uh suddenly you have
him out pulling the lieutenant governor.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Wow, that's Jay Collins.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Now now it seems clear why they've
for so many years wanted to defund public education.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Yeah, I mean what do you mean for wanted to
they have done it is.
Speaker 5 (17:52):
Currently whitewashing his history books and censoring, uh, you know,
discussions because they don't want the facts that contradict the
these narratives being out there.
Speaker 4 (18:01):
And that's a grow lakery.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Yeah, man, that's the word you should coin there, buddy.
Speaker 4 (18:10):
All right, I'll stick with it, all right.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Good low for Scott Maxwell guys.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
Yeah, alright, seven nine fifteen you buddy, as always, We'll
see you soon. Hit that bourbon call me all right
four seven nine one six one four one win. By
the way, is your four o'clock keyword w I N
Go to real Radio dot I him and send that
away for your chance on one thousand bucks back at
a second more than Jim Colbert Joe.
Speaker 6 (18:31):
Our constant mispronunciations and poor grammar are clear indicators that
we are not AI Real Radio one O four point
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This weather report is brought to you by Mills Air.
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If its Central FOURDA Fox thirty five Storm Team urologist
snow Bourgon Here.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
We're looking at a blend of clouds and sun over
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Temperatures are going to be in the upper hindies. Record
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