> Houses can be had for as low as 100k.

Can they?

I'm looking at Redfin right now, and they claim the average home price in Uptown, Minneapolis, MN right now is $600k.

There's a few cheap 1 bedrooms apartments, but anything else is way in the realm of "completely unaffordable to all but the extremely wealthy"

I see lots of cheap housing in Minneapolis. But it's all suburban in nature. (Either actually suburban, or 'technically-inside-the-city' single-family homes that are effectively suburban.