As apartment size shrinks in newly built apartment communities, renters are seeing a higher demand now for storage-unit space, according to a survey by StorageCafe.
“As new apartment units are mostly built in large-scale communities, living space is dwindling, making many people seek storage solutions away from home. In fact, our survey shows that self-storage is now particularly popular among renters,” the survey says.
“We asked approximately 18,000 people why they use self-storage, what they keep there, what types of unit they use, and more.”
Key takeaways from storage unit study:
- More than a fifth (21 percent) of Americans currently use self-storage, with another 15 percent saying they intend to do so in the future.
- Furniture is the item most commonly put in a self-storage unit.
- Not having enough space at home is now the main reason for using self-storage, reported by 40 percent of current storage users. That overtook moving, reported by 34 percent.
- Larger households have more need for self-storage — 27 percent of those with five or more members currently turn to storage away from home.
- People between ages 40 and 55 — mostly the Gen Xers — are in the age group most likely to be renting self-storage right now.
- New York, Chicago, and Houston were the U.S. cities that showed the greatest interest in self-storage in 2022.
- Las Vegas, Nev., is the city that gets the most searches for all types of vehicle-storage units.
Conclusion
The report says, “the keenest self-storage renters are Gen Xers living in averaged-sized residences, perhaps with large households, and more commonly renting than owning their homes — they appear to be rather keen on putting sports gear in storage, too.
“These days, in a shift from previous patterns, people are more likely to rent storage to take the strain off their living space than because they are moving home. Self-storage is searched for more than ever across the nation’s largest cities — particularly in the Southwest — and its costs are always much more reasonable than residential space, enabling residents in all types of accommodation to maximize their lifestyles,” the Storage Café report says.
