Affordability has long been a relative term, but housing affordability is a complex issue. One the one side, rising rental rates are good for business, and the real estate and development communities in the Twin Cities, particularly in Minneapolis, point to higher rents as reason enough to keep building downtown high rises and renovating older buildings into chic new apartments.
The other side of the coin, of course, is the fact that higher rents force some potential renter further from the downtown core, and many people just entering the job market find that they cannot afford to rent anywhere near their places of employment. It's a sad fact, notably in major urban centers like San Francisco, Boston and Austin, Texas. It's also becoming so in
…