14 Feb 2023
2021 was a banner year for self storage. There were many drivers for the industry due to COVID-19. Those drivers have since slowed down in 2022 with there being a significant decrease in average price per square foot when comparing months in 2022 to 2021. However, to look at these decreases and say the industry is in trouble can be misleading as 2021 was such an outlier.
Prior to 2020 it is clear that the National Average Occupancy and Average price per square foot follow their seasonal trends with both these metrics hitting all time highs in 2021. However by viewing the graph it looks like coming off the tail of 2022 they are stabilizing to pre COVID numbers. I am curious to see how impacted the occupancy percentage will be when the REITs report their Q4 earnings.