68,019 facilities changed what we thought we knew
Hey everyone,
For years, we’ve had a problem in self storage that almost nobody talks about.
We have a lot of industry data.
We have quarterly earnings reports. Occupancy numbers. Street-rate reports. Cap-rate surveys. Construction forecasts. Transaction data.
But there’s a catch:
Most of the numbers we call “self storage industry data” have never actually measured the entire storage industry. In fact it's just a fraction.
They’ve primarily measured the easiest part of the industry to see: REITs, institutional operators, facilities with an online presence, and properties in major metropolitan markets.
That distinction matters a lot.
Because if you’re an investor buying a facility that's not in the top metro areas but in a secondary or tertiary market, how useful is a “national” number built primarily around a 65,000-square-foot REIT-managed facility in a major metro?
We wanted a better answer.
We want to look at the industry, not just 15% of the industry.
So Self Storage Income partnered with TractIQ to create something that, to our knowledge, has never been done at this scale before:
Measure the storage industry as a whole.
The result is The 80% Report.
The part of self storage nobody was measuring
The scale of the difference surprised even us.
The report tracks 68,019 operating storage facilities representing 2.77 billion gross square feet.
Compare that with some of the numbers traditionally used to understand the industry.
REIT earnings cover 10,896 stores. The most-quoted rate index reports on 30 metros. The 2026 national investment outlook forecasts 36 of the country's 926 MSAs. And the valuation survey used to help establish cap-rate expectations is based on roughly 1,200 properties.
None of those sources are necessarily wrong.
In fact, that distinction is important.
They're often very good at measuring the properties they actually observe.
The problem comes when data from that relatively small institutional slice of the market gets interpreted as representative of all self storage.
Because there are 57,123 facilities that aren't REIT-managed.
And when you finally measure those facilities, you start seeing a very different picture.
The "other" self-storage industry is enormous
Here's one number that really puts this into perspective.
There are approximately 1 billion square feet of self storage outside the top 100 MSAs.
Inside the top 25 MSAs?
About 1.03 billion square feet.
In other words, the self storage inventory outside the top 100 markets is nearly as large as the inventory inside the country's 25 biggest markets.
Yet that 1 billion square feet outside the top 100 receives no monthly index and no national forecast.
That's a huge blind spot.
And it's particularly important for the investors in our community because this is often exactly where we're looking for deals.
We're not trying to compete with Public Storage to buy a $100 million portfolio in Phoenix.
We're looking at independently operated facilities where there may be operational inefficiencies, below-market rents, poor marketing, outdated technology, or an owner who's ready to retire.
That's the part of the industry we need data on.
And the numbers don't always tell the same story
This is where the report gets really interesting.
If the institutional market and the rest of self storage generally moved together, this wouldn't be that big of a deal. We could look at the REITs and major metros and reasonably assume everyone else was experiencing something similar.
But that's not what the data shows.
On several of the most important measurements for an owner - rates, occupancy recovery, supply and valuation - the institutional sample and the broader universe can tell dramatically different stories.
Take rates.
One widely cited measure showed national advertised rates down 1.6% year over year in July.
But when the report examined 10x10 standard street rates across the broader dataset, they were up 7.2% blended year over year, with independent operators up 6.5%.
Or look at valuations.
Institutional surveys have reported Class A cap rates around 5.0%–5.5%.
But non-core going-in cap rates in the report run roughly 7.0%–8.5%, with a midpoint of 7.75%.
That's not a minor difference.
At the same NOI, the report calculates a 32% difference in value.
For someone actually underwriting a storage acquisition, that distinction can completely change the deal.
This is why we built TractIQ
This is also a big reason we're so excited about what's happening with TractIQ.
For years, individual storage investors have been forced to make decisions using data and tools largely built around the institutional side of the industry.
Meanwhile, independents operate 65.7% of all facilities in this dataset.
And these aren't simply smaller versions of REIT facilities. The median independently managed store is just 17,150 square feet, compared with 64,905 square feet for a REIT-managed facility.
They're different assets, in different markets, operated differently.
They deserve to be measured that way.
For the first time, we're able to pull back the curtain on that part of the industry and start understanding what is actually happening across the full universe of self storage.
Not just Wall Street.
Not just the REITs.
Not just the top 30 metros.
All 68,019 operating facilities.
The 80% Report
There is a LOT more inside the full report than I can’t cover in one email.
We dig into rates, occupancy, supply, cap rates, transaction values, financing, distress, demand, REIT consolidation, independent operators, secondary and tertiary markets - and, most importantly, where the traditional industry narrative differs from what the broader dataset is showing.
If you invest in self storage, operate facilities, or are considering buying your first property, I think this is one of the most important reports you can read this year.
Because better investing starts with understanding the market you're actually investing in.
Take a look and let me know what stands out to you.
— A.J.
