Where Do We Keep All Our Stuff? Study Cites Dallas-Fort Worth as a Self-Storage Force

“That’s all your house is, it’s a place to keep your stuff while you go out and get more stuff. Sometimes, you gotta move. You gotta get a bigger house. Why? Too much stuff. You gotta move all your stuff. And maybe put some of your stuff in storage. Imagine that, there’s a whole industry based on keeping an eye on your stuff.”

George Carlin

A long time ago, comedian George Carlin had an unforgettable five-minute standup about “stuff,” our belongings, and what we do with belongings.

I bring this up because that’s the first thing that came to mind when RENTCafé released its Self Storage report. RENTCafé researched both multifamily and self-storage development trends in the nation’s largest 100 metro markets between 2011 and 2020 to find out which places offer the best self-storage options to apartment renters.

The Dallas market ended up tops. As metro Dallas’ apartment market surged in the past decade, the business of storing people’s belongings boomed along with it.

RENTCafé, an apartment and self-storage search website, backed its research with these findings of where people keep their “stuff.”

• 16.2 million square feet of space over 194 facilities was added in the past decade to D/FW’s self-storage inventory, surpassing New York, Houston, and Chicago.
• D/FW now offers 8.6 square feet of storage space per capita, nearly double that of New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
• Dallas added 173,000 rental units in the past decade, although in smaller size than historic trends. Among the largest Texas cities, Dallas lost the most apartment space, which fuels demand for self-storage.
• D/FW’s average monthly rental cost for 10- by 10-foot storage was $94, a decrease of 9 percent over the past five years.

Nationwide, the U.S. added over 295 million square feet of self-storage between 2011-2020, roughly 20 percent of the existing national inventory. According to RENTCafé research, the U.S. has more self-storage facilities than all the Best Buy, Lowe’s, Home Depot, Walmart, McDonald’s, and Subway locations combined.

That’s a lot of stuff. And a lot of places to keep it.

To find the full report and read what the experts are saying about the boom in self-storage development, click here.