This year, the house beside it just had 2 big bradford pear trees
suddenly die. And by suddenly I mean one week they were green and
then a couple weeks later the leaves are brown and falling off.

What would do such a thing? Seems too weird to be just a coincidence.
I looked and didn't see any kind of tree damage to any of them.

That's what it was like with my juniper. Wasn't drought, I was watering.
Suddenly all the tips browned, and it spread inward from there and was
crunchy dry in like three or four weeks.