America’s ‘missing middle’ and the struggle for affordable housing

By Andrew Pentis | Bankrate.com

When Richard Amaechi, 27, lost his job as a financial planner in North Carolina, he decided to pull up stakes and return to San Francisco, where his parents still lived. The question was: Had his hometown become too expensive to welcome him back?

The City by the Bay has been stretching budgets for years with a cost of living that routinely ranks among the highest in the nation. San Francisco apartments typically rent for almost twice what they do in Charlotte.