Self Storage Street Rates Are Plunging Nationally, With Aurora, IL, & Two AZ Cities Seeing Rents Cool The Most

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  • Self storage street rates went down 4.6% year-over-year in October 2023
  • Self storage rents decreased in 83% of the largest cities year-over-year
  • Aurora, IL, comes first for street rate reduction, seeing a 14% year-over-over plunge in October 2023
  • Newark, NJ, comes first for highest street rate growth, with undersupply being an underlying factor
  • Fort Worth, TX, is estimated to deliver the highest volume of self storage construction in 2023

 

Following two years of increased enthusiasm, the self storage market is slowing down, with rates continuing their year-over-year plunge. Several factors, including high existing inventory, a more challenging housing market and decreased moving activity, are contributing to cooling rents. The nationwide average price of storage space in October 2023 was $7 per square foot, a 4.6% drop year-over-year. Meanwhile, the average street rate for a 10’x10’ non-climate-controlled unit hovered around $124.

The downward trend is also evident on a monthly basis, with a 1% drop seen relative to the previous month. Of the 150 most populous cities, 83% registered annual street rate declines.

 

Aurora, IL, leads the group of cities experiencing the steepest street rate declines

Aurora, IL, takes the lead in terms of street rate reductions, registering a 14.7% year-over-year plunge in October 2023. This drop in rent comes within the context of a competitive housing market which has seen considerable price growth. The decreasing sales activity also means there’s less demand for self-storage, impacting price trends. Renting a storage unit in Aurora now costs, on average, $87 per month. Per square foot, rent amounts to $0.9 per month for the same period.

 

 

Arizona gets two podium positions for annual street rate plunges – self storage rents in the neighboring cities of Gilbert and Chandler dropped almost identically, by 14.2% and 14.1%, respectively. A Gilbert storage unit rents for $127/month, the square-foot cost amounting to $1.02/month. Renting storage in Chandler costs $135/month for a standard 10’x10’ unit, representing $1.07/square foot. Of the two cities, only Gilbert is expecting new construction in 2023, with an estimated 279K square feet of self storage due to be added to the local inventory.

Tucson also joins the ranks of Arizonan cities for rent decreases, at 11.3% y-o-y. Renting storage in Tucson costs $110 for a standard 10’x10’ unit, that’s $1.01/square foot. The city benefits from a healthy overall inventory of over 6.3M square feet of self storage space, which translates to 8.2 square feet/person, a little above the national benchmark of 7 square feet/capita.

Two cities – Orlando and Pembroke Pines – are also putting Florida on the map for street rate decreases. An Orlando storage unit now rents for $107/month, whereas the per-square-foot rent is 1.07/month. Further south, rates for a standard 10’x10’ Pembroke Pines unit are $173/month and a square foot of storage calls for $1.57/month.

Undersupplied cities see highest self storage rent hikes, with Newark, NJ, in the lead

Newark, NJ, comes first for street rate increases, at 6.4% y-o-y. With only 0.8 square feet/person, the city is highly undersupplied, which creates a context for demand exceeding supply. Moreover, with Newark being a NYC commuter town, there are plenty of newcomers attracted by the city’s friendlier housing market. In fact, the local population swelled by 8% in the past five years. It may come as no surprise that demand for storage space away from home also went through the roof, and rent prices went together with it. A Newark storage unit (10’x10’) rented for $149 in October 2023, and rent per square foot was $1.7 in October 2023.

 

Staying on the East Coast, Worcester, MA, is another place where street rates shot up, increasing by 3.1% y-o-y. In the past five years, the “Heart of the Commonwealth” saw its population increase by a whopping 10%. Meanwhile, the city’s self storage provision is extremely low (2.9 square feet/capita) compared to the national benchmark of 7 square feet/capita, and together with the larger population growth, these are some of the primary factors generating the street rate increase. Rates for a Worcester storage unit were $133 in October 2023, making a square foot cost $1.3 for the same period.

Manhattan, NY, is a newcomer to the top 10 of cities seeing a substantial jump in self storage rates in October 2023, thanks to a 2.4% year-over-year increase. Manhattan storage costs for a 10’x10’ standard unit clock in at $391 and $4.3/square feet. As the borough continues to experience high demand, 217K square feet of self storage are estimated to be built by the end of 2023.

Brooklyn is the second NY location to break into the top 10 of places for rent hikes, with an increase of almost 2% y-o-y. This brings the cost of a Brooklyn unit to $275/month, at a per-square-foot cost of $2.7. Almost 111K square feet of self storage space are slated for delivery in 2023 as a response to the existing demand.

Sunbelt cities shine brightest for estimated self storage construction in 2023

Among the top 10 cities seeing the highest volumes of self storage construction in 2023, seven of them are in the Sunbelt, an area that has benefited from intensified migration in the past few years, which has invigorated the local self storage sector as well.

Top Cities for 2023 Expected Construction

#City2023 Projected New Supply (sq. ft.)2023 New Supply as % of InventoryCurrent Sq. Ft. per Capita
1Fort Worth, TX480,9686%6.1
2Orlando, FL460,1546%6.7
3San Antonio, TX410,2443%8.8
4Tucson, AZ399,4266%8.2
5Philadelphia, PA375,2077%2.9
6Queens, NY346,7626%No data
7North Las Vegas, NV324,71215%4.2
8Lexington, KY316,99514%8.0
9Memphis, TN306,7285%8.0
10Las Vegas, NV304,8822%7.2
11Houston, TX283,2041%6.7
12Gilbert, AZ279,02413%3.8
13Lubbock, TX273,3437%15.9
14Knoxville, TN269,6847%9.6
15Tulsa, OK256,8465%9.0
16Amarillo, TX249,50511%12.3
17Santa Clarita, CA247,43131%3.9
18Miami, FL239,9083%3.6
19Phoenix, AZ238,5732%5.1
20Worcester, MA231,31236%2.9
21Manhattan, NY217,1835%No data
22Winston-Salem, NC212,88710%7.0
23Plano, TX201,3906%5.5
24Tallahassee, FL201,0928%10.3
25Mobile, AL201,0768%9.9
26Charlotte, NC199,0303%7.1
27Durham, NC191,5246%9.0
28Fayetteville, NC183,8387%11.3
29Los Angeles, CA183,1743%1.8
30Henderson, NV179,4846%6.2
31Columbus, OH179,1344%4.4
32Salt Lake City, UT174,5977%3.3
33Greensboro, NC167,4975%10.3
34Scottsdale, AZ166,7276%7.9
35Reno, NV155,5803%14.5
36St. Petersburg, FL153,5847%5.9
37Spokane, WA150,0995%7.3
38McKinney, TX144,1026%7.5
39Louisville, KY137,3462%7.5
40Colorado Springs, CO131,6712%10.8
41Des Moines, IA126,3779%4.9
42Peoria, AZ125,2138%4.5
43Chicago, IL123,2931%3.3
44Corpus Christi, TX118,4953%11.7
45Baltimore, MD118,4813%3.6
46Garland, TX116,8926%3.8
47Sacramento, CA111,6932%4.9
48Brooklyn, NY110,7832%No data
49Huntsville, AL110,6755%9.7
50Cape Coral, FL106,7847%7.1
51El Paso, TX106,5382%6.0
52Jacksonville, FL105,5431%9.3
53San Diego, CA102,7502%3.9
54Anaheim, CA102,2987%1.4
55Atlanta, GA98,8502%4.5
56Minneapolis, MN96,2375%2.0
57Richmond, VA92,9812%5.5
58Oakland, CA92,3686%2.4
59Staten Island, NY91,9846%No data
60Elk Grove, CA91,7738%3.9
61Aurora, IL89,03913%2.5
62Baton Rouge, LA87,0822%11.0
63Stockton, CA83,9304%6.0
64Brownsville, TX83,4259%5.1
65Akron, OH82,6715%4.6
66Toledo, OH81,8825%4.3
67Raleigh, NC81,0002%7.2
68Overland Park, KS80,0757%3.0
69Tampa, FL74,1501%6.9
70Aurora, CO71,6782%4.2
71Newport News, VA71,2745%6.0
72Indianapolis, IN70,5601%6.7
73Cary, NC68,1436%4.7
74Mesa, AZ67,6091%5.8
75Madison, WI64,6475%4.2
76Albuquerque, NM60,0001%7.6
77Pittsburgh, PA58,7382%3.5
78Virginia Beach, VA57,9821%10.5
79Birmingham, AL56,2502%7.0
80Portland, OR53,3001%4.3
81Wichita, KS52,1362%6.7
82Little Rock, AR51,4672%11.2
83Grand Rapids, MI48,5873%3.7
84Lincoln, NE44,4122%6.4
85Vancouver, WA44,2891%8.0
86Austin, TX42,5230%7.8
87Cleveland, OH38,7562%2.3
88Bronx, NY34,8751%No data
89Cincinnati, OH33,6731%3.8
90Chattanooga, TN32,1101%8.0
91Eugene, OR13,0541%7.1
92Fremont, CA5,2250%3.5
93Denver, CO5,1730%3.4

RentCafe analysis of Yardi Matrix data
* Projected construction (%) for 2023 as a percentage of the total existing inventory at the end of 2022

With close to 481K square feet of self storage scheduled to be delivered in 2023, Fort Worth, TX, comes first for estimated construction for the year. The city already has a substantial inventory of over 8M square feet of self storage, with ongoing development pointing to an existing demand for the service locally.

The second Texas city to pop up in the top-10 list, San Antonio is also no stranger to new development for the current year. The city is estimated to build over 410 square feet in 2023, despite already having a healthy 8.8 square feet of self storage per person. Being one of the top moving destinations in the country, San Antonio is seeing renewed demand for self storage, which continues to fuel construction activity.

Moving east, Orlando, FL, comes second for scheduled construction, with an estimated construction volume of 460K square feet of self storage space set to come online by the end of the year. The city has been attracting newcomers at impressive rates – population increased by 12% based on U.S. Census estimates, one of the sources of self storage demand nudging new development to carry on throughout the year.

In the Southwest, Tucson, AZ, is also seeing solid expected development, with 399K square feet slated to come online by the end of the year. The city is already home to a generous inventory of self storage (8.2 square feet/capita), totaling over 6.3M square feet of storage space.

On the East Coast, Philadelphia, PA, is another city where the self storage sector is active, as it’s estimated to add about 375K square feet in 2023, representing 7% of the total inventory. With Philly having only 2.9 square feet of storage space per person, the local self storage market is deeply underserved, which is a contributing factor to the current construction beat.

Moving over to the neighboring state, Queens, NY, is also experiencing demand for self storage, which has prompted new development in 2023. The borough is expected to see close to 347K square feet of self storage space constructed for the year, representing 6% of the existing inventory. Overall, Queens has a total of 5.5M square feet of self storage space.

Methodology

This analysis was done by RentCafe Self Storage, an online platform that provides apartment and storage unit listings across the nation.

This report analyzes self storage street rates and construction estimates in October 2023. To do that, we included the most populous 150 cities that have at least 10 self storage facilities equipped with a minimum of 10 10'x10' storage units.

For data on remote workers, we used the 2021 data from the U.S. Census.

Data on self storage street rates and construction estimates for 2023 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 redistribution

We encourage you and freely grant you permission to reuse, host or repost the research, graphics and images presented in this article. When doing so, we ask that you credit our research by linking to RentCafe Self Storage or this page, so that your readers can learn more about this project, the research behind it and its methodology.

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Mirela is a real estate writer and lifestyle editor for Yardi. With an academic background in English and translation, Mirela now covers a range of topics including real estate trends, lifestyle and economy. Her previous experience in proofreading academic articles has inspired Mirela to choose a writing career path. In her free time, Mirela enjoys reading, but also hiking and creating art. You can contact Mirela via email.

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