Self Storage Thrives During Good and Bad Times

There are some aspects of the economy that tend to do well during prosperous economic times. Other segments tend to do better during not so prosperous economic times. There are a select few that can honestly say that they do well no matter what the economic climate is.

The self storage industry happens to be one of those industries.

According to an old saying, misery loves company, but in fact it loves the self storage industry. The poor economic times that much of the nation and world have endured over the last few years has actually resulted in an upswing in business for self storage facilities. Roughly one in every ten Americans make use of a self storage facility and with about 49,000 facilities scattered across the country, it is not hard to do so. There is at least one primary self storage facility in 84 percent of counties across the nation.

With self storage easy to access by people across the country, many have not hesitated to make use of it during these poor economic times. As people are forced to downsize their homes or go through foreclosure they need somewhere to put all their belongings. More and more businesses are starting to use self storage facilities to help cut down on costs. Whenever small businesses fail, as many have during the current state of the economy, they need somewhere to store all their equipment and any remaining product.

"Self storage has weathered the storm," says Michael Schwartz, CEO of Strategic Storage Trust Inc., a self-storage investment firm from Ladera Ranch.

Many self storage places have seen their business continue to flourish as the poor economy drags on. A survey done by SelfStorage.com of 200 facilities turned up some pretty interesting numbers. In 2010 over 40 percent of them stated that they had experienced an increase in traffic. Just under 40 percent said that they saw revenue rise.

Schwartz of SSTI thinks that the business is just fine during prosperous economic times as well. He cites what he considers a certain segment of the population, namely those that are at an in between stage in life (between jobs, cities, marital status, etc) that is on the move and in need of the services of a self storage facility. There have always been people that are self-employed and in need of a little extra space as well.

Tack on people that are victims of natural disasters and in need of a place to keep the belongings that survived while they find another place to live or repair the old one, and the self storage industry is one that is never actually out of demand.



Sources Used:

“Self storage fakes out the economy.” The Orange County Register; 09 June 2011.

2011 SSA Fact Sheet. Self Storage Association.