Storage unit users are getting younger as memories — and junk —accumulate

Travis Willoughby is wrestling with what to do with the belongings he and his brother, Davis, have accumulated that fill a 10-by-10 storage unit along Dallas' Greenville Avenue.

As their parents downsized to a townhome in Uptown, furniture became the first item that required a self-storage unit. Then their mother passed away, adding to the collection boxes of photos and items filled with meaning and memories. Last year, more furniture and belongings found a home in the unit as Travis combined households with his wife.

"Throughout this whole process, we've listed things on Facebook Marketplace and have also been in this weird situation of trying to figure out if we throw something away that we have sentimental attachments with," said Travis, a 31-year-old natural gas trader.

The Willoughby brothers are part of a growing swath of millennials requiring self-storage space, according to a data analysis by StorageCafe.

The company, which provides storage unit listings across the country, surveyed 4,000 Americans about their storage usage and future plans across a variety of ages.

StorageCafe estimates approximately 18% of Americans have a storage unit.

Last year saw a shift among millennials, aged 24 to 39, in StorageCafe's analysis, with a quarter of the respondents reporting they currently lease self-storage space and another 23% expressing interest in renting it in the future.

The figure surpasses the 23% of Gen Xers with storage units, in addition to baby boomers (22%) and the Silent Generation (13%). Twelve percent of respondents to StorageCafe's survey between the ages of 18 and 23, an of-age sampling from Gen Z, rent a storage unit.

The majority of respondents indicated they simply do not have enough room where they are currently living, with furniture measuring as the most-stored item. A growing number of users have started keeping vehicles in storage units, as well.

But the reasons vary for younger generations as apartment square footage shrinks, rental rates increase and home ownership becomes less attainable.

The Willoughby brothers upsized to a bigger unit as their belongings grew, but after their monthly rate was raised by $50 to over $330 in August, they are working to wind down their need for a self-storage lease by the end of the month.

"You'd like for items to go to someone you know because you feel bad throwing it away, but at the same time, we've paid about $7,200 for a unit. I think we could have replaced just about all of the furniture with new stuff for that amount," Travis said.

Kayla Mielke, 32, moved her belongings into storage at the end of August. After Mielke's landlord spiked the rent at her Brooklyn, N.Y., apartment by $200 a month, Mielke decided to weigh her options. Since she works remotely in recruiting, Mielke has been buying time by staying with family in her hometown of Denver and spending time with friends in Dallas and California.

"I want to live alone, but living alone in New York is expensive," Mielke said. "When my lease was up, I wanted to try to live at home to see if that could be a long-term fit before I committed to anything."

Other reasons cited among millennials include renting storage space to hold furniture while staging a home for sale or to temporarily store wares while working to align move-in dates for leases, home purchases or combining households.

Self-storage caught the attention of institutional investors about a decade ago when firms saw the asset class as a source of consistent returns for real estate investment trusts.

The cost to renovate and upgrade self-storage is relatively low, and that makes it an intriguing investment, according to Nathan Bennett, a managing principal with self-storage real estate investment and development firm UTEX Storage Partners.

"Once you own (storage), especially if it's brand new, you don't really have to touch it for 20 years," Bennett said. "It's a very low Cap-Ex, good cash-flow business."

It's also a simpler space to bump up rates because moving items is, well, burdensome.

The COVID-19 pandemic heightened and accelerated development in the space as work-from-home trends took hold and people flocked to regions that could offer more space for a better price.

According to data compiled by real estate market intelligence firm YardiMatrix, sister company to StorageCafe, the Dallas-Arlington-Fort Worth metropolitan area began construction on 1.3 million square feet of storage space in 2022. The figure is comparable to additions in the greater Los Angeles and Atlanta areas, and dwarfed only by the New York-Newark-Jersey City (3.5 million) and Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler (1.8 million) metros.

YardiMatrix reported the U.S. now has more than 1.8 billion square feet of self-storage space.

2023 saw a more than 15.6% increase in new self-storage stock across the country. If the added 49 million square feet was expressed as a straight line, it would equate to just over 9,280 miles.

The space has softened over the past year. Bennett noted that interest rates in particular held up homebuying, which in turn impacted occupancy.

"That put a big damper on our leasing season nationwide. Texas held up better than other parts of the country," he said.

YardiMatrix reported that North Texas has the largest amount of available storage space inventory in the country, with 76.5 million square feet. The number reflects a jump of nearly 3% year over year, but it's not necessarily a reason for alarm due to the region's growing population.

"There are a ton of people moving here with no end in sight," Bennett said.