[kbenson]

Presumably you could also relocate temporarily to a surrounding area where it's (relatively) cheaper, and bus, drive, and soon possibly train in for anything requiring you be in the city. You should have enough free time on your hands that the time eaten by commuting isn't a problem.

[shagie]

Relocation typically has the question of "can you afford to live here?" This is done with a pay stub of offer letter to see if you have 3x the money on it than rent. If you are unemployed this can become rather difficult.

This says nothing of the cost of breaking a lease or the expense of moving itself. If you don't have the 3+ month savings, unemployment checks are eaten away by basic living in no time flat.

This is being said by someone who had a paycheck bounce which in turn lead to what would have been a bad check written for rent. Fortunately I had a friend who loaned me $1k for rent who banked at the same place and immediately got me in touch which another job offer.

[kbenson]

True. I was mostly thinking of the situation where you have some money saved, and want to make it last. In that case, showing a bank account balance might be sufficient. You'll have to decide yourself whether you think it's worth choosing a shorter lease and breaking it or living with it if you get another job, or trying to secure a month-to month deal for the short term.

If you don't have enough money saved to even do this, I'm not sure staying in an apartment in SF is a good idea anyway. Probably better to couch-surf if you can swing it, unless you are fairly sure of a new job very quickly. Anything to reduce the outlay on inflated SF housing costs, keeping in mind that if you range far enough, you might find a small studio for half or third the SF cost.