Self-Storage Pricing Insights
4,637 facilities, analyzed

What features actually cost — paired premiums

Each comparison pairs units of the SAME size at the SAME store that differ in exactly one attribute — climate control, floor, or drive-up access — so location and local demand cancel out. What's left is the dollar value the pricing model assigns to that one feature. 'All sizes' pools every matched pair for that feature; rows below it break the premium out by size wherever a size has 15+ matched pairs on its own.

Deepest inventory — where storage is easiest to get

The pricing feed reports how many units of each size are actually rentable right now — 289,804 units nationwide at last scrape. These metros have the most open doors.

Tightest markets — where storage is scarce

Fewest available units per store among cities with 5+ facilities. This kind of scarcity is hard to gauge without checking multiple stores directly, which is what this table does at a glance.

Nearly full — stores running out of space

Store-level scarcity: 64 facilities have fewer than 5 rentable units left, 209 fewer than 10, and 838 (18% of the network) fewer than 20. These are the last-unit stores — the directory flags them with an 'Almost Full' badge.

Completely sold out

15 facilities currently advertise zero rentable units. These stores are typically left off the operator's own sitemaps once full, but they're still operating stores — this directory keeps them listed with their site numbers.

What a 10x10 costs, by state

Average advertised monthly rate for a standard 10x10 unit. Coastal and dense metros predictably top the chart — the interesting part is the spread between neighbors.

Local price variance — same unit, same city, wildly different price

The gap between the cheapest and priciest 10x10 within a single city. In the top cities, picking the right facility saves renters serious money for an identical unit — and it shows how loosely rates track location within a metro.

The promo decoder — what the discounts are really worth

Public Storage runs exactly three promotions network-wide. Averaged over the first three months, the famous '$1 first month' and '2nd Month Free' are near-identical (~33% off), while 'First month 50% off' is barely half the discount it sounds like (~17%). Notice the tiering: the cheapest units get the '$1' offer, the priciest get '2nd Month Free' — the promo itself signals the unit's price band. The effective column is true average monthly cost for months 1-3.

The best real move-in deals in America (10x10)

Ranked by effective monthly cost over the first three months, promo included.

What the advertised price range represents

Every unit page shows a min-max price range that looks like a pricing band. We tested whether street rates move within it. They don't — across 52,074 listings, 100.0% sit exactly at the midpoint, because the displayed range is mechanically today's price ±20% (rounded). It's best read as a disclaimer construct rather than an independent pricing signal: when the range moves, that reflects the price moving. Real rate movement is tracked on the daily trends page.

The scarcity dial — fewer units left, higher price

Same unit size (10x10 only), bucketed by how many are left at that store. The gradient is steep and monotonic. Causality runs both ways — high prices slow sell-through, and low availability pushes prices up — but the correlation is exactly what a demand-based revenue-management system produces.

Do better-rated stores charge more?

Google-style review data from each store page: 3,509 rated stores, 1,538,522 total reviews, 4.73 average. The bands compare each rating tier's average 10x10 street rate.

Lowest-rated facilities (25+ reviews)

The bottom of the network by customer rating.

The storage burden — price vs local income

Average 10x10 rate as a share of average monthly income in the store's zip codes (income: IRS SOI 2022, AGI per tax return). Across 149 cities the median burden is 1.5% of a month's income — but the spread is enormous, and the most burdened markets are rarely the richest ones.

The bulk discount curve — small units cost multiples more per square foot

Price per square foot falls steeply as units get bigger. A 5x5 renter pays roughly double the rate per square foot of a 10x30 renter for the same building.

Median price by size (national)

The middle price for each size, nationwide — a steadier read than the average when a few outlier markets skew things.

Median price by size, by state

Same idea, split by state. Cells with fewer than 5 listings for that state/size combo are left blank rather than published as a misleading median.

Most expensive markets per square foot

Normalizing by square footage makes markets directly comparable regardless of unit mix.

Cheapest markets for a 10x10

The 10 cheapest storage units in America

Real, currently listed units (5x5 or larger).

...and the 10 most expensive

The other end of the market.

Storage saturation per capita

Facilities per million residents. Sun-belt states dominate — a mix of population growth, cheap land, and a car-first culture that generates overflow stuff.

Elbow-to-elbow — average distance to the next Public Storage

For cities with 8+ facilities: how far is each store from its nearest sibling, on average? In the tightest metros, the same brand competes with itself just blocks apart.

The vehicle storage market

1,658 facilities rent uncovered vehicle/RV/boat spaces. Nationally a parking spot advertises at about 89% of a 10x10's rate — driveway arbitrage for anyone with a project car and an HOA.

Unit size mix

What the network actually stocks, by listing volume.

Most saturated metros

Facility count by city — where the footprint concentrates.

Data notes

Stores with no unit listings (they're fully sold out — see the scarcity section) and any records with missing fields surface here so the pipeline's health is visible.