Self Storage Rates Stabilize, Registering Only a Mild 0.7% Decrease in April

Self storage rates have been trending downward for several months, but as of April, that decline has slowed to just 0.7% year-over-year, bringing the national average rent to $135 across all unit types. This shift is also reflected in monthly performance, with national rates rising 0.7% compared to March. Among major cities, street rate trends are at a tipping point: 45% are seeing increases, while an equal share are experiencing declines.

On the construction front, approximately 56 million square feet of new storage space is expected to be delivered in 2025. While this is a substantial volume, it’s slightly below the 60 million square feet completed in 2024. The dip may be driven by high existing inventories and ongoing economic uncertainty.

However, a closer look at the 150 largest cities reveals a different story. In these urban markets, over 14 million square feet of new storage are projected to come online in 2025, representing a 9% increase year-over-year. This uptick likely reflects continued demand driven by economic growth, population increases and urban expansion.

The South dominates the list of cities seeing rent drops, with Fayetteville registering decreases in the double digits

Fayetteville, NC, tops the list of cities seeing rent drops with a 10% decrease year-over-year. This brings a Fayetteville unit to an average $108/month. The city benefits from a healthy inventory of 12.4 square feet per capita, considerably over the national benchmark of seven square feet. The high supply coupled with a challenging housing market helped to push rates down in the city. In 2025, the city is expected to add over 72,000 square feet of self storage to the local inventory, a drop from the higher deliveries in the previous two years.

Still in North Carolina, Winston-Salem’s supply of 8.3 square feet per resident is one of the contributing factors to the overall downward trend in the city. A Winston-Salem storage rents for about $104/month. No new construction is scheduled for delivery in 2025.

Over in Tennessee, Clarksville posted a 6.1% y-o-y drop in self storage rates, resulting in an average rate of $107/month. The city’s high supply of self storage – 11.5 square feet per resident – is a potential factor putting downward pressure on rates. Close to 88,000 square feet of self storage space is estimated to be added to the local pipeline in 2025.

Huntsville, AL, also saw its storage rents go down to the tune of almost 5% y-o-y. The city’s high inventory – 11.5 square feet per capita – largely contributed to the lowering of rates. Huntsville storage averages roughly $97/month. In 2025, the city’s construction is estimated to exceed 123,000 square feet.

Detroit, the only Midwestern city to make this list, has the second-lowest self storage supply relative to population among major U.S. cities: just 0.9 square feet per capita. Despite this limited inventory, storage rates still dropped 5.5% year-over-year, bringing the average rent to $138 per month. This decline may be linked to the city’s 6% population decrease over the past five years and the generally challenging local economy and job market, which have likely weakened demand enough to outweigh the effects of tight supply.

Two Florida cities lead in self storage rent increases

St. Petersburg and Pembroke Pines in Florida top the list of cities that registered the highest annual street rate increases, at about 8.5% in both places. One of the potential reasons for this hike is local undersupply. St. Petersburg has 5.8 square feet per capita, while in Pembroke Pines local inventory is even lower – a mere 2.4 square feet for every resident. Both cities could stand to gain more square footage, but so far, no new construction is expected to come on the market in 2025. Similarly, both cities had no development activity in 2024. St. Petersburg alone saw the addition of 154,000 square feet of self storage in 2023.

Higher up on the East Coast, low supply of self storage is also contributing to escalating rates. Both Cary, NC, and Yonkers, NY, have seen their average annual street rates go up around 6.7%, while in Washington D.C., storage rents experienced a 4.9% hike. D.C. and Yonkers have the lower storage supply – at around 2 square feet per resident, while Cary’s supply is slightly higher at 4.7 square feet, but still modestly-sized to be able to accommodate local demand. Yonkers is the sole market of the three cities to have new construction scheduled for 2025, close to 62,000 square feet scheduled for delivery.

Over in California, annual rent increases have seen their fair share of variation, from 4.8% in San Francisco to 6.9% in Fontana. In both places, limited inventory is putting upward pressure on street rates. San Francisco storage units come with one the highest price tags in the nation – currently at $242/month – as a competitive housing market as well as a higher cost of living in the city have contributed to this trend. Alternatively, Fontana storage rates offer a customer-friendlier cost of about $140/month.

Sunbelt cities take the lead for the nation’s self storage construction outlook

Sunbelt has been particularly active on the self storage development front, and it remains a leader for forecasted construction in 2025. Self storage inventory continues to expand, even in markets where inventories are already substantial. Steady population growth, ongoing urban expansion and strong local economies are supporting this trend.

Jacksonville, FL, leads in terms of expected construction, with over 889,000 square feet scheduled for delivery in 2025, despite having a healthy inventory of 9.7 square feet per capita. The city has been at the receiving end of substantial migration, seeing its population rise 9.4% in the past five years. This helped fuel demand for the service and kept construction strong. Jacksonville also recorded delivery activity in the past two years, but not quite as amped up as 2025 is expected to be. Close to 189,000 square feet came online in 2023 and over 278,000 square feet were delivered in 2024.

Top Cities for 2025 Construction

#	City	2025 Forecasted New Supply (sq. ft.)	2025 New Supply as % of Inventory	Current Sq. Ft. per Capita
1	Jacksonville, FL	889,238	9.1%	9.74
2	Los Angeles, CA	654,107	9.6%	2.1
3	Houston, TX	631,527	2.3%	6.88
4	San Antonio, TX	617,217	3.6%	9.25
5	New York City, NY	515,235	2.2%	2.42
6	Phoenix, AZ	482,875	4.4%	5.48
7	Las Vegas, NV	404,955	2.9%	7.61
8	Tucson, AZ	386,074	5.5%	8.7
9	Scottsdale, AZ	337,963	11.0%	8.92
10	McKinney, TX	307,833	10.1%	8.39
11	Tampa, FL	298,056	4.4%	6.94
12	Austin, TX	290,528	2.9%	7.84
13	Philadelphia, PA	266,310	3.8%	3.36
14	Mesa, AZ	252,874	5.0%	5.97
15	Hialeah, FL	252,484	23.3%	2.04
16	Glendale, AZ	245,241	10.1%	2.96
17	Bakersfield, CA	243,826	4.7%	9.15
18	Raleigh, NC	225,522	4.8%	7.43
19	Little Rock, AR	223,715	6.9%	12.58
20	Boise, ID	214,427	5.2%	12.09
21	Sacramento, CA	205,410	3.4%	4.94
22	Miami, FL	196,661	2.2%	3.88
23	Orlando, FL	185,377	2.0%	7.02
24	Atlanta, GA	183,552	3.3%	4.57
25	Nashville, TN	182,723	4.7%	6.57
26	Fort Wayne, IN	179,977	7.7%	7.18
27	Seattle, WA	170,421	4.5%	3.97
28	Elk Grove, CA	168,674	13.1%	4.79
29	Denver, CO	168,054	3.4%	3.39
30	Albuquerque, NM	166,255	3.2%	7.5
31	Charlotte, NC	164,114	2.1%	7.23
32	Chesapeake, VA	160,701	6.1%	6.61
33	Richmond, VA	154,609	3.8%	5.75
34	Oklahoma City, OK	154,121	2.0%	8.86
35	Aurora, IL	154,054	20.6%	2.45
36	Colorado Springs, CO	151,504	2.2%	11.16
37	Portland, OR	144,000	3.1%	4.28
38	Tallahassee, FL	135,597	4.8%	11.07
39	Port St. Lucie, FL	129,090	7.9%	6.35
40	El Paso, TX	126,865	2.7%	6.26
41	Chandler, AZ	124,109	5.6%	4.49
42	Huntsville, AL	123,772	4.0%	11.51
43	Baton Rouge, LA	118,536	2.6%	11.54
44	Anchorage, AK	115,711	8.2%	6.35
45	Fort Worth, TX	114,747	1.2%	6.45
46	Cincinnati, OH	113,435	2.9%	4.15
47	Overland Park, KS	103,275	9.1%	3.24
48	Newark, NJ	101,796	12.7%	0.91
49	Oakland, CA	100,390	6.3%	2.44
50	Virginia Beach, VA	100,008	1.7%	10.62
51	Cape Coral, FL	99,137	5.6%	7.63
52	Louisville, KY	98,746	1.6%	7.43
53	Fort Lauderdale, FL	98,031	3.8%	3.73
54	Durham, NC	97,500	3.0%	9.47
55	Arlington, TX	96,666	2.5%	5.86
56	Tulsa, OK	94,580	1.9%	8.99
57	Gilbert, AZ	91,438	3.8%	3.92
58	Corpus Christi, TX	89,150	2.4%	11.54
59	Vancouver, WA	89,065	2.9%	8.36
60	Greensboro, NC	88,200	2.3%	11.18
61	North Las Vegas, NV	86,742	3.3%	4.67
62	Memphis, TN	86,500	1.4%	8.19
63	Peoria, AZ	83,849	4.7%	4.32
64	Madison, WI	76,597	5.0%	4.43
65	Fayetteville, NC	72,200	2.2%	12.39
66	Newport News, VA	67,245	4.2%	6.32
67	Amarillo, TX	64,080	2.1%	13.99
68	Columbus, OH	62,580	1.2%	4.44
69	Yonkers, NY	61,605	6.1%	1.97
70	Brownsville, TX	59,277	6.0%	5.06
71	Clarksville, TN	56,430	2.3%	11.53
72	Lincoln, NE	55,117	2.8%	6.79
73	Buffalo, NY	54,825	6.6%	1.54
74	Chicago, IL	54,471	0.4%	3.52
75	Sioux Falls, SD	54,378	3.5%	7.74
76	Frisco, TX	53,232	3.0%	3.82
77	Akron, OH	52,886	2.9%	5.17
78	Indianapolis, IN	48,075	0.6%	6.85
79	Lexington, KY	33,604	1.3%	8.31
80	Rochester, NY	19252	1.0%	3.55
81	Spokane, WA	14175	0.5%	7.3

RentCafe Self Storage analysis of Yardi Matrix data
* Construction (%) for 2025 as a percentage of the total existing inventory at the end of 2024

Texas cities, typically among the best performers for self storage activity, are continuing this trend. Houston, TX, grabs the third spot nationally with close to 632,000 square feet slated for completion, followed closely by San Antonio with 617,000 square feet. While boasting one of the highest overall inventories in the nation, Houston’s supply related to population is standing at 6.9 square feet, a figure indicating an almost balanced market. On the other hand, San Antonio’s 9.3 square feet per capita points to a well-supplied market. However, the city also experienced increased demand supporting further construction. McKinney is also taking a seat at the table and is expected to add about half of San Antonio’s predicted deliveries. Not unlike the other Texas cities, McKinney is experiencing strong economic performance, a favorable business climate and overall growth that’s underlying the sweeping self storage expansion.

Over in Arizona, cities in the Phoenix metro area are witnessing economic growth that’s driving self storage development. The city of Phoenix is the recipient of the highest self storage development in the state, with close to 483,000 square feet forecasted to come online this year. The city has only 5.5 square feet of storage per capita, clearly behind what a balanced market should look like. In Tucson and Scottsdale, where inventories sit at close to 9 square feet per capita, estimated deliveries are much lower. Tucson is predicted to add over 386,000 square feet of self storage, while in Scottdale, planned additions sit around 338,000 square feet for 2025.

In California, Los Angeles is poised to build over 654,000 square feet of self storage markets, a welcome addition to an otherwise severely underserved market. LA is home to a mere 2.1 square feet per capita, one of the lowest in the country.

Moving onto the East Coast, New York is the only city outside of Sunbelt among the best cities for expected deliveries in 2025. The Big Apple is scheduled to add over 515,000 square feet of storage this year. The upcoming deliveries are meant to alleviate demand in the context of another tight market where supply sits at a low 2.4 square feet per capita. Interestingly, New York is the only city with no self storage construction activity in 2024 among the leading cities for forecasted construction. This hiatus comes on the heels of the accelerated construction in 2023, when over 1.1 million square feet of storage came online locally.

Check out how street rates and inventory are looking in the 150 largest cities in the U.S.:

Methodology

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

The article is based on our research into self storage data from our sister division, Yardi Matrix, a business development and asset management tool widely used by brokers, sponsors, banks and equity sources for underwriting investments in the multifamily, office, industrial and self storage sectors.

The report considers the largest 150 cities by population with an active self storage inventory of at least 10 facilities.

This report analyzes self storage rents and deliveries estimates for 2025 based on April 2025 data.

The self storage street rate is calculated as the weighted averages of the street rates for all storage unit sizes, non-climate-controlled and climate-controlled units included.

For the ranking, we analyzed the total rentable square footage within Yardi Matrix’s coverage area, calculating each company’s inventory as a percentage of the nation’s total inventory or each state’s inventory, depending on the scope. The data is accurate as of January 2025.

For data on population changes, we’ve turned to the U.S. Census (2018-2023 dataset).

Please note that data and coverage areas may evolve, and actual figures are subject to change.

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 it 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.