>> Presumably the desirability of the top cities drives their real estate prices.

Desirable to whom?
I developed a love of opera and classical music when a marine vet college buddy who had some music major friends gave me some free tickets to the Metropolitan opera.
Anything for a cheap date in those days.
We were so far up that some got nosebleeds, but we saw Richard Tucker and Renata Tebaldi singing Puccini and that magic has never subsided.
Well into the 1970's I had a subscription to the Met and the NY Philharmonic, but eventually the insanity drove me away
Orchestra seats at the Met and at Broadway shows now routinely cost 4 figures.

I support this local symphony orchestra and love it:
https://www.facebook.com/NJCPO

We have good - not great- local theater groups who can provide an entertaining and diverting evening.


The large cities have become weird places.