Self Storage National Report – May 2026
Out of the top 30 metros tracked by Yardi Matrix, 29 saw positive movement in advertised asking rent growth month-over-month through April.
Self storage REIT results following this year’s first quarter pointed to improvement across the sector. Same-store revenue growth bounced back to 0.6 percent year-over-year from negative 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, due to stabilizing occupancy and significant in-place rent growth. However, performance remains tied to local supply conditions, with Sun Belt markets facing pricing pressure, while supply-constrained Midwest and Northeast markets record healthy revenue growth.
Annually, 29 of the top metros saw a drop in same-store advertised rents for non-climate-controlled units. At the same time, 27 of the top metros saw a drop in advertised street rates for climate-controlled units compared to April 2025, according to the latest Yardi Matrix national self storage report.
Month-over-month, average advertised street rates per square foot for the 10×10 non-climate and climate-controlled units combined rose 1.0 percent to $16.22 per square foot. Of the top 30 metros tracked by Yardi Matrix, 29 saw positive values in advertised asking rent growth. San Antonio was the only metro whose metrics remained unchanged compared to March of this year.
Nationwide pipelines lift foot off the gas pedal
April saw a total of 2,560 self storage properties in all stages of development across the U.S. The pipeline totaled 618 properties under construction, 1,642 planned and 300 prospective projects. The under-construction pipeline accounted for 2.2 percent of the total existing stock through April, contracting 0.1 percent month-over-month and 0.3 percent year-over-year. During the same month, there were approximately 46.2 million net rentable square feet under construction nationwide.
Out of the top 30 metros, 14 had under-construction pipelines below the national average with the San Francisco Bay Area and Portland, Ore. ranking last, at 0.7 and 0.5 percent.
On that same list, only three metros registered an increase in under-construction supply compared to the previous month, namely San Diego, Houston and Boston. Phoenix ranked at the top of the list, with 6.5 percent of under-construction supply from existing inventory, down 20 basis points month-over-month. Sarasota-Cape Coral ranked second nationwide based on the same metric, recording a sharp 130-basis-point drop month-over-month to 6.5 percent of under-construction supply as of April.
At the same time, 15 of the metros on the list had their pipelines standing still from March through April, particularly coastal and Sun Belt markets, such as Miami, New York City, Philadelphia, the Inland Empire, San Antonio and Nashville, Tenn.
Download the latest Yardi Matrix self storage report.
