Temporary move? (San Francisco, Oakland, Redwood City: apartments, leasing, hotels)

[MornieAlantie]

I've tried to google this and search for it on the forums with no luck, but it's possible that I'm just not using the right search keywords. If this has already been addressed before, I'm apologizing in advance!

I took a business trip to the Bay area earlier this year and after that experience, am set on going there. The city I'm aiming for is Redwood City, since that's where my company is headquartered. I would prefer to have as short of a commute as possible, which ultimately means I'm going to have to be in the same city and most likely be paying higher rent.

The main thing is that I plan for this move to be temporary. I'm aiming to be there for about 6 months (possibly up to a year or even shorter if I decide I don't like it). I'm not discounting the idea of me loving it so much that I want to stay there longer or permanently, but for now, I'm thinking of it as a temporary move.

With that said, are there a lot of apartments/rental places that offer month to month leasing? Will I then have to prepare myself for higher rent? I think this will be one of the hardest things for me to get over, I'm paying about $600/month for an apartment now, but it seems like I'll have to pay upwards of $1500/month for a 1 bedroom if not more in this area.

Aside from Craigslist and other apartment rental sites, does the bay area have free apartment locators? Those are fairly common where I live, but from my limited research (on CL and google), they don't seem to be as common in the bay area. Are there any other resources I should utilize when looking at apartments or rental places?

Taxes... will I have to pay the CA state taxes if my move is just temporary? Will I also need to worry about registering my vehicle as soon as I get there? Any other things I should keep in mind before heading up there? (Please feel free to bring them up, no matter how trivial.)

I've never made a move like this before, so I have a lot of questions and I want to be as prepared as I can be before doing so.

Thanks!

[mayorhaggar]

CL is the main place to look. There should be a section for temporary lodgings--rooms and apartments, also often people list temp places in the normal apt/room listing sections sometimes. Often you can take over the rest of someone's lease, or their roommate is moving out early and they need someone to live there for a few months, etc.

Rent in San Francisco is like $900-1200 for a studio in a decent area, and $1400 and up for a 1 bedroom and that will be a small and possibly dirty place. The suburbs are generally cheaper, I don't know what RC prices are like though, you can get 1 bedrooms in the nice parts of Oakland for $1100 a month.

There are also some hotels and apartment websites that specialize in people staying for a few months, but they seem kind of expensive.