Did Dave Chappelle buy an entire town? Debunking the viral rumor

A few years ago, a story surfaced online claiming that comedian Dave Chappelle had bought an entire town. This claim is not fully true. No official sources confirm this claim, and in reality, Chappelle owns numerous residential and commercial properties in Yellow Springs, but the story has now been exaggerated. So, the claim that Dave Chappelle bought an entire town is not true, nor does he fully own or control Yellow Springs. Reports available online clearly list the properties he has purchased, making it clear which buildings and spaces he owns in Yellow Springs. 

Dave Chappelle owns several properties and is said to have nearly half of the town’s main street, but this does not mean he owns the full village. In the future, this could change if he buys more properties in Yellow Springs. 

Back in February 2022, a video of Dave Chappelle attending a council meeting in Ohio went viral. In the video, he clearly opposed a housing development that claimed to provide affordable housing for the town’s residents, but Chappelle’s spokesperson later called the plan “half-baked.”

The talk about his stakes in Yellow Springs resurfaces in 2025 after his recent Dave’s Netflix special, The Unstoppable, where he brings up the town where he now lives and says, ‘’A lot of people say, ‘What are you doing out there?’ He added,

 ‘’The town that I’ve been living in for the last 25 years. I bought most of it. Ohio loves Trump, but this town I am living in is like a little itty-bitty Bernie Sanders Island in the Trump Sea. If I was white and the people in this town were black, you know what they would say? They would say I was gentrifying the town. I own everything…[Ni___] everything.’’ 

Yellow Springs has a minority of Black people, with around 3,700 residents currently living there. The town has been Dave’s childhood space, where he would spend his holidays with his father. In 2004, he moved back to his hometown, and during the COVID-19 pandemic, the comedian helped the town financially by using his art to perform stand-up shows while maintaining social distance. Through these shows, he was able to raise $4 million for Yellow Springs, Ohio. 

According to reports by Cracked, they shared his SNL monologue, where he said, 

“My town was dying… I did shows in my neighbor’s cornfield, and these shows were very successful and may have even helped save the town.”

List of Dave Chappelle’s owned properties in Ohio

According to local records (via Business Insider), Dave Chappelle’s properties in and around the town were purchased for over $3.7 million. Through his companies, Iron Table Holdings and Pilot Boy Productions, he owns about 10 residential and commercial properties, including houses, apartment buildings, offices, and small shops. Chappelle has been steadily buying many properties in the area over the years. His investments in Yellow Springs go back to at least 2010.

120 Railroad Avenue – $308,900 (2015)
239–243 Xenia Avenue – $599,000 (2018)
1540 Xenia Avenue– $90,000 (2017)
309 Xenia Ave. – $485,000 (2020)
403 Xenia Ave. – $390,000 (2020)
314 Dayton St. (Union Schoolhouse) – $480,000 (2020)
221 Xenia Ave. – $400,000 (2020)
1425 Brookside Drive – $389,500 (2020)
225 Corry St. (Former Firehouse) – Price not listed (2020) 

These are just a few listed properties; it could now be more as of 2025. These properties include commercial buildings, parking lots, apartment and office buildings, a former firehouse that will be turned into a comedy club and restaurant, his merchandise shop, coffee shop, and more.