High home prices and an opera performance

Homeowners in northwest Wisconsin and northeast Minnesota may have seen the value of their properties skyrocket since the pandemic — but if they sell, can they afford to buy again? And is homeownership growing out of reach for local first-time buyers as purchasers from other states drive up real estate prices?

Gabe Walsh, the CEO of Lake Superior Area Realtors based in Duluth, and the group’s past president, Jenna Galegher Kulenkamp of Bayfield, join “Simply Superior” host Robin Washington to discuss these trends and what the current housing boom means for the region.

Also, Italian composer Pietro Mascagni’s opera “Cavalleria Rusticana” is a single act, but it’s filled with intrigue and emotion along with memorable music, which more than 100 performers of the Lyric Opera of the North will bring to Duluth’s Marshall Performing Center. Conductor Maria Sensi Sellner and Michael Fuchs, the choral director, preview the concert with Washington, which fills out its theme of love and entanglement with Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance.”