April 2026 self storage report: Rents up from March, yet down year-over-year

Andrei Popa-May 18, 2026

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National street rates averaged $133 per month in April 2026, up 1.5% from March but still down 2.2% year-over-year.
72% of large U.S. cities recorded annual rent declines in April, an improvement from 76% the prior month.
Lincoln, NE, led all cities for rent growth at 5.0% year-over-year, while fellow Nebraska city Omaha posted the second-highest gain at 4.6%, pointing to a broader pattern of steady demand in the Midwest.
Glendale, CA, posted the steepest annual drop at 10.7% despite critically low supply of 2.1 square feet per capita, while Sun Belt markets in Florida and Texas also faced pressure from elevated inventories.
Forecasted 2026 deliveries for the top 150 cities total nearly 12 million square feet, a 14% decline from 2025 levels, as developers pull back in response to high existing inventories.

The U.S. self storage market showed tentative signs of stabilization in April 2026. National street rates averaged $133 per month, a 1.5% gain from March, the first month-over-month increase of the year, though rates remained 2.2% below April 2025. Among the 150 largest U.S. cities, 72% recorded year-over-year street rate declines, a modest improvement from 76% the prior month. The 28% of cities that posted annual gains were concentrated in undersupplied coastal and Midwestern markets, where tight inventories sustain upward price movement.

Meanwhile, Sun Belt and inland California markets face the continued weight of elevated supply and slower housing activity. On the construction front, 2026 forecasted deliveries for the top 150 cities stand at nearly 12 million square feet, 14% below 2025 levels, a signal that developers have started to respond to the overhang of recent years.

Oversupplied Sun Belt and Inland California markets lead rent declines

The steepest rent drops in May 2026 are concentrated in markets where inventory levels exceed demand or where housing market slowdowns have eroded storage activity. Glendale, CA, posted the nation’s sharpest year-over-year decline at 10.7%, with street rates falling to $281 per month. Despite a very tight supply of just 2.1 square feet per capita, demand-side pressure from the city’s housing squeeze has outweighed the structural scarcity that typically sustains pricing in dense urban markets. With no new supply delivered in 2025 and only 85,187 square feet forecast for 2026, the correction is driven by weakening demand rather than a flood of new inventory.

Santa Rosa, CA, followed with a 9.9% annual drop to $166 per month, a slight improvement from last month’s pace. At 8.3 square feet per capita, the city sits modestly above the national benchmark of 7 square feet, and with no new supply in 2025 or meaningful additions forecast for 2026, the decline reflects the same regional demand softness pulling on Northern California markets more broadly. This decrease comes in the context of Northern California’s broader affordability squeeze, where some households, particularly in Sonoma County, are relocating to cheaper metros or consolidating space, dampening demand for higher-priced storage even though the city is not being flooded with new facilities.

Still in the Sun Belt, Cape Coral, FL, saw rates fall 8.7% year-over-year to $150, with a further 1.9% month-over-month slide. The city carries 8.7 square feet per capita and faces 471,280 square feet of new supply forecast for 2026, representing 22% of its total existing inventory. That wave of new construction is likely to keep downward pressure on street rates well into next year. Plus, Cape Coral’s vulnerability to oversupply is magnified by the fact that a large majority of its housing units are single-family homes. So, when housing turnover and in-migration slow, a large batch of new storage deliveries has an outsized impact on pricing.

Rounding out the top 5, Lubbock, TX, and Providence, RI, each posted 8.5% annual declines, reaching $100 and $139 per month, respectively. Lubbock’s case remains one of the most extreme in the country, with 17.3 square feet per capita, more than double the national average. The city’s extreme square footage per capita is partly explained by its university population and role as a service hub for the wider West Texas region, but when development got ahead of those drivers, the result was a prolonged period of discounting and weak rent growth.

Providence presents a starker contrast: at just 1.8 square feet per capita, its rent decline cannot be attributed to oversupply. Instead, a sluggish housing market and weaker moving activity in the Providence metro appear to be suppressing demand in a city that, by supply metrics alone, should be among the strongest performers in the Northeast.

Tight supply drives gains in Coastal and Midwestern markets

Rent gains in May 2026 are spread across a diverse set of markets, united less by geography than by a common thread of undersupply, stable local economies, and limited new construction on the horizon. Lincoln, NE, leads the nation with a 5.0% year-over-year increase, bringing average street rates to $126 per month, with a 1.6% gain from the prior month. At 6.9 square feet per capita, just below the national average, Lincoln’s gains are supported by its university presence, stable state-government employment base, and 236,668 square feet of new supply forecast for 2026, a pipeline that bears watching but has not yet tempered momentum.

Omaha, NE, posted the second-highest annual gain at 4.6%, with rates reaching $99 per month. At 7.5 square feet per capita, Omaha sits modestly above the national average, suggesting its gains are demand-driven rather than the product of scarcity. No new supply is forecast for 2026, which removes one potential source of downward pressure. The paired performance of Lincoln and Omaha points to a broader Nebraska story of steady economic growth and population retention that is translating directly into storage demand.

Down south, Port St. Lucie, FL, logged a 4.1% annual increase to $128 per month, a notable result for a Florida market at a time when much of the Sun Belt faces pricing pressure. The city’s explosive population growth over the past several years has generated persistent storage demand that operators continue to monetize. No new supply is forecast for 2026, leaving the demand-supply balance intact.

Buffalo, NY, and Pittsburgh, PA, round out the top five with gains of 3.8% and 3.1%, reaching $138 and $134 per month, respectively. Both cities are structurally undersupplied: Buffalo at just 1.8 square feet per capita and Pittsburgh at 3.7 square feet. Buffalo absorbed 82,308 square feet of new supply in 2025 and has an additional 39,950 square feet scheduled for 2026, yet scarcity remains acute enough to sustain upward pricing. Pittsburgh delivered 75,444 square feet in 2025, with 22,500 more forecast for 2026, a modest addition relative to the city’s existing deficit.

Development slows nationally as Houston and Las Vegas head the 2026 pipeline

Self storage construction activity in 2026 reflects a market in recalibration. Forecasted new supply across the top 150 cities totals nearly 12 million square feet, down 14% from the 14 million square feet delivered in 2025. Nationally, the decline is more moderate at 10%, with 51 million square feet expected for the full year compared to nearly 57 million in 2025. The top 150 cities account for just 23% of national forecasted deliveries, which indicates that secondary and suburban markets absorb a large share of new construction.

Top Cities for 2026 Construction

Rank	City	2026 Expected Supply (Sq. Ft.)	2026 New Supply as % of Inventory	Sq. Ft. Per Capita
1	Houston, TX	888,844	3%	7.0
2	Las Vegas, NV	708,087	5%	8.1
3	Jacksonville, FL	586,328	6%	10.4
4	Phoenix, AZ	360,764	3%	5.6
5	San Diego, CA	317,995	5%	4.2
6	Cape Coral, FL	310,093	15%	8.6
7	Los Angeles, CA	298,202	4%	2.1
8	Colorado Springs, CO	284,820	4%	11.5
9	San Antonio, TX	273,016	2%	9.6
10	Tallahassee, FL	251,023	8%	11.7
11	Irving, TX	232,832	11%	7.5
12	Sacramento, CA	230,919	4%	5.1
13	El Paso, TX	224,891	5%	6.5
14	Oklahoma City, OK	210,488	3%	9.1
15	Atlanta, GA	207,926	4%	4.7
16	McKinney, TX	204,956	7%	8.4
17	Little Rock, AR	198,065	6%	13.4
18	Lubbock, TX	196,377	4%	17.3
19	Irvine, CA	194,780	6%	5.0
20	Philadelphia, PA	194,769	3%	3.4
21	Mesa, AZ	193,481	4%	6.0
22	Peoria, AZ	191,223	10%	4.6
23	Fort Lauderdale, FL	186,174	7%	3.8
24	Fort Wayne, IN	178,714	7%	7.5
25	Newport News, VA	164,602	10%	6.6
26	Rochester, NY	162,045	8%	3.7
27	Orlando, FL	160,650	2%	7.1
28	Tucson, AZ	158,868	2%	9.1
29	Richmond, VA	158,013	4%	6.0
30	North Las Vegas, NV	156,709	6%	4.9
31	Greensboro, NC	156,161	4%	11.2
32	Austin, TX	153,600	2%	8.0
33	Tampa, FL	151,851	2%	7.2
34	Virginia Beach, VA	133,629	2%	11.2
35	Louisville, KY	125,546	2%	7.6
36	Toledo, OH	117,096	6%	4.7
37	Eugene, OR	116,283	7%	7.4
38	Dallas, TX	112,231	1%	5.2
39	Arlington, TX	110,322	3%	6.2
40	Reno, NV	101,531	2%	14.3
41	Indianapolis, IN	98,968	1%	7.1
42	Durham, NC	97,500	3%	9.7
43	Glendale, AZ	97,305	4%	3.1
44	Cleveland, OH	95,188	5%	2.2
45	Birmingham, AL	95,071	2%	7.7
46	Nashville, TN	91,556	2%	7.1
47	Gilbert, AZ	91,438	4%	3.9
48	Bakersfield, CA	91,430	2%	10.0
49	Henderson, NV	89,478	3%	6.6
50	Corpus Christi, TX	89,150	2%	11.7
51	Glendale, CA	85,187	11%	2.1
52	Denver, CO	83,872	2%	3.5
53	Buffalo, NY	82,308	9%	1.8
54	Oxnard, CA	73,552	5%	5.3
55	Knoxville, TN	67,788	1%	10.0
56	Albuquerque, NM	66,500	1%	7.6
57	Charlotte, NC	66,201	1%	7.4
58	Brownsville, TX	59,277	6%	5.1
59	Chicago, IL	54,471	0%	3.5
60	Portland, OR	52,500	1%	4.5
61	Santa Rosa, CA	50,841	2%	8.3
62	Fresno, CA	50,445	1%	7.0
63	Cincinnati, OH	49,500	1%	4.3
64	Amarillo, TX	36,480	1%	13.9
65	Fayetteville, NC	35,435	1%	12.6
66	Lincoln, NE	33,750	2%	7.0
67	Des Moines, IA	32,832	2%	4.9
68	Seattle, WA	23,737	1%	4.3
69	Aurora, IL	21,195	2%	2.8
70	Norfolk, VA	14,535	1%	5.5
71	Plano, TX	10,925	0%	5.4
72	Fort Worth, TX	7,552	0%	6.6

RentCafe Self Storage analysis of Yardi Matrix data (Data as of Mar. 2026 | Pub: Apr. 2026)
* Construction (%) for 2026 as a percentage of the total existing inventory at the end of 2025

Houston, TX, leads the 2026 pipeline with 789,519 square feet forecast for delivery, a 3% addition to its existing inventory. At 7.0 square feet per capita, Houston sits right at the national average, and continued population growth in the metro area supports further development. Houston’s continued development pipeline is underpinned by its large, diversified economy and strong net migration gains, but heavy exposure to both past and future supply means operators increasingly lean on sophisticated revenue management rather than across-the-board rent hikes.

Out West, Las Vegas, NV, follows closely with 767,195 square feet projected, a 5% inventory increase atop its current base of 8.2 square feet per capita. The Las Vegas Valley has long maintained a strong appetite for self storage, and this development reflects continued confidence in the market despite recent rent softness. Las Vegas’s new projects ride on the metro’s volatile but generally strong in and outmigration, tourism driven employment swings, and a renter heavy housing stock, which together create frequent storage needs but also make the market sensitive to any downturn in visitor or job numbers.

Phoenix, AZ, and Cape Coral, FL, each account for roughly 471,000 square feet of 2026 forecasted supply. For Phoenix, at 5.6 square feet per capita, new construction responds to genuine undersupply as Metro Phoenix extends its growth footprint. For Cape Coral, the calculus is more complicated: a 22% inventory increase layered on top of an already declining rate environment poses real risk of further oversupply.

Finally, San Diego, CA, rounds out the top five with 384,284 square feet forecast for 2026, a 6% inventory addition. At 4.2 square feet per capita, San Diego remains meaningfully below the national benchmark, and new supply there is more likely to relieve pricing pressure than to exacerbate it. The city’s low storage inventory reflects decades of strict land use constraints and high development costs, so even as some new projects move forward, persistent housing scarcity and high rents ensure that demand for off-site space remains structurally strong.

Conclusion

May’s data captures a market still sorting itself into two distinct stories: coastal and Midwestern cities with lean inventories and stable demand foundations are pushing rates higher, while Sun Belt and California markets remain anchored by supply they have yet to fully absorb. The Providence anomaly, where rents fell 8.5% despite just 1.8 square feet per capita, is a reminder that demand destruction can override even the tightest supply picture when housing activity stalls. With national deliveries projected to fall 10% in 2026, the conditions for a broader recovery are taking shape, but the pace and geography of that turn will depend less on what gets built and more on when movers, renters, and relocating households return to the market.

Methodology

This analysis was conducted by RentCafe Self Storage, an online platform offering nationwide listings for apartments and storage units.

This report considers self storage rents and forecasted construction for 2026 based on March 2026 data.

The report features the 150 most populous cities that have a self storage inventory of at least 10 units. The self storage street rate is calculated as the weighted averages of the street rates for all storage unit sizes, including both non-climate-controlled and climate-controlled units included.

For data on population changes, we turned to the U.S. Census (2019–2024 dataset).

Data on self storage street rates, deliveries and 2026 forecasted construction activity came from our sister division Yardi Matrix, a business development and asset management tool for brokers, sponsors, banks and equity sources underwriting investments in the multifamily, office, industrial and self storage sectors.

Fair use and distribution

This study is intended as a resource for the general public on topics of common interest and should not be considered investment advice. The data presented is accurate to the best of our knowledge, based on thorough and good-faith research, but may change due to external factors.

We permit the distribution of this content, provided that proper attribution is given to “RentCafe Self Storage” with a link back to the research study.

Want to explore how this trend has developed over time? Check out our previous reports for historical data and insights on the topic:

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Andrei Popa

Andrei Popa is a writer and editor for StorageCafe. After writing real estate copy for two years, he made the jump to editorial writing and data-driven storytelling with a focus on the self storage industry.