Rental Cost of Self-Storage Units in U.S. Almost Halved as Demand Slips

Self-storage rental rates have dramatically fallen since prices peaked at an average of $132.06 per month for a 10-foot-by-10-foot unit in July 2022, Commercial Observer has learned.

The national average monthly rental cost for those units now sits at $74.98, according to a new report from self-storage online marketplace SpareFoot. Rental costs are a key fundamental when major commercial real estate firms evaluate the asset class, and that $74.98 per month is almost half of the national average compared to when self-storage took off during the pandemic. 

SpareFoot’s data shows that renters are looking for a bargain today, and are willing to do a bit of traveling to reach their unit if it means saving a buck or two.

Whether self-storage continues to be a hot asset class may depend on the market, however, with major transactions still taking place in New York City, where supply is constrained. New York and California saw some of the highest rents in the country in recent months, according to the platform for finding and renting self-storage units.

As of February 2026, renters in New York were paying $1.30 per square foot, while the asset class was renting for $1.21 per square foot in California, the report said.

The trend is feeding company-level acquisitions, with StorageMart, the parent company of Manhattan Mini Storage, snapping up 15 New York City self-storage facilities in a deal valued at roughly $1 billion in January. The deal was executed roughly five years after StorageMart acquired the smaller, local Manhattan Mini Storage for more than $3 billion in 2021.

Hawaiians and Alaskans, meanwhile, are paying the highest price for self-storage space, with the average rental price well over $2 per square foot, SpareFoot’s report noted.

Arizona had the lowest cost per square foot at 51 cents, while Oklahoma was at 52 cents and Missouri at 56 cents.

Location, location, location? Not exactly. More, “deal or no deal.” 

The sticker price for storage units was oddly much more important to the consumer than where the units were located, according to the report, with 55 percent of renters polled by SpareFoot saying rent cost was the primary concern.

Security and 24/7 access were the second and third most important considerations, with only 29 percent of respondents rating location as the most important factor when choosing a storage unit.

In October 2023, Brian Cohen, president and CEO of Andover Properties, told CO that only 7 percent of the population used self-storage before the pandemic. That number shifted closer to 11 percent by 2023, leading to massive investment in the asset class.

But the following year, self-storage expanded to the point where it started to be seen as a bubble, with growth in supply beginning to outweigh the demand, which had waned as people returned to offices.

Mark Hallum can be reached at mhallum@commercialobserver.com.