Well, the first guy profiled could've used his "his savings and his investments" and his "daughter's college fund" to move instead of spending it all on rent. Downsizing is a pretty common occurrence in most parts of the country, but in SF there's really not much to downsize to.
If you're connected to the community you live in (coaching, etc), your child's doing well in a good school, it becomes easy to extend yourself "one more week" in order to maintain that, hoping things will change - and then past the "oh shit" moment you realize you're past the point of effectively affording to move and restart life. Plus, in 2009, i don't think there were places to move to to get an easy job. The guy did apply to 800 places...
