Self-storage owners and investors are about to find out whether the industry is as recession-resistant as many have assumed over the years. Jeffrey Adler, vice president at Yardi Matrix, made clear during a company spring-outlook webinar last week that the self-storage industry—along with the entire U.S. economy— is now in “unchartered” territory as a result…
Responding to social-distancing practices prompted by the coronavirus pandemic, self-storage operators big and small are favoring “no touch” over the human touch. In recent weeks, a number of self-storage operators have rolled out, beefed up or promoted “contactless” options for renting units. But Robert Chiti, chairman and CEO of Phoenix, AZ-based self-storage technology provider OpenTech…
While it remains to be seen how the coronavirus pandemic will affect the self-storage industry in the long run, in the short-term many markets across the country are seeing a surge in demand. As colleges and universities shut down across the country in cities like Boston and Ithaca, they are forcing students to move out…
As an industry, self-storage is taking two approaches to the coronavirus pandemic — compassion and caution. Offering help during a crisis From the compassion perspective, several self-storage operators are temporarily offering free or discounted units to college students who’ve been displaced by coronavirus-driven school shutdowns. As part of its coronavirus response, Salt Lake City, UT-based…
Continued overbuilding across the country is putting price pressures on self-storage facilities across most of the country – and nowhere are the price pressures greater than in Pittsburgh, Minnesota’s Twin Cities and South Carolina’s Charleston, according to a new Yardi Matrix report. For the entire country, rent prices fell by about 1 percent in January,…
The gaggle of bidders used to stand shoulder to shoulder in narrow corridors to catch a glimpse of the goods stored inside, now they wait their turn in line standing six to eight feet from each other. Like all things, the coronavirus pandemic is changing the world of self-storage auctions. “The protocol now is a…
Updated 3/7/2020 This page contains statistics about the U.S. self-storage industry compiled by The SpareFoot Storage Beat. Statistics on this page will be updated as we receive new data. If you have data that you’d like to share or have a question about data on this page, please email editor@sparefoot.com. Self-storage sector snapshot Average monthly…
Self-storage conversions — taking an existing building and turning it into a self-storage facility — continue to draw significant interest this year. “About 12 million of the over 64 million that opened last year were conversions,” says Steven Weinstock, who oversees the self-storage division at Marcus & Millichap. “This year, we are expecting about 60…
Miami, FL, is mulling two moves that would clamp down on self-storage development — moves that some industry observers welcome as a much-needed cooling-off period but that others view as government overreach. On January 15, Miami’s Planning, Zoning & Appeals Board endorsed two proposed rules for self-storage developments in the city: A ban on storage…
As self-storage professionals know, moving ranks among the biggest drivers of self-storage rentals. But what happens to that chunk of business once the relocation rate in the U.S. drops to an all-time low? In 2018-19, just 9.8 percent of Americans moved, according to data released in November by the U.S. Census Bureau. That’s the first…
