The Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX CBSA goes back and forth with New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA CBSA between the 2nd and 3rd CBSA with the most square footage of storage. It is important to note that the New York-Newark-Jersey City CBSA has over double the population of the Houston CBSA. The metro NYC area has over 20,000,000 people living there with a square foot per capita of 3.3, while the Houston market is under 8,000,000 with a square foot per capita of 8.5.
The Radius+ team took a deep dive to determine why these two drastically differently populated markets had comparable amounts of storage.
One main reason why demand stays high in Houston is because rates have been able to stay relatively low when compared to rates in NYC. The average price per square foot from January 1st 2022 to August 31, 2022 in the Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX CBSA was $1.34 which was 66.7% lower than the average price per square foot of the New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA CBSA from the same time period which was $2.22. With lower rates, self storage is more accessible for people in the Texas area, helping maintain steadily high demand.
Another reason why self storage demand is so high in Texas is due to the accessibility to large open space, rivers and lakes. People interested in outdoor activities like fishing or Kayaking that require specialized equipment will have more of a reason to purchase a storage unit to keep their home from getting cluttered.
These reasons are drivers for consistently high demand for self storage in the Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX CBSA despite its smaller population when compared to the New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA CBSA which has a similar square footage of supply.
Sourced from Radius+ data.
