Which way US storage prices are moving.
This page used to carry a national dollar figure for a 5×10. It no longer does, because no free public source publishes one and the figure we had was assembled from places we should not have taken it. What follows is the measure that does exist, stated for what it is.
The series
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes a producer price index for miniwarehouse and self-storage unit operators, NAICS 531130, as series PCU531130531130. It has run monthly since December 2003, indexed so that December 2003 equals 100, not seasonally adjusted. It measures the revenue operators realise per unit of service sold, across every unit size and every market in the country.
Calendar-year averages
| Year | Index | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 149.8 | n/a |
| 2020 | 146.9 | -1.9% |
| 2021 | 159.0 | +8.2% |
| 2022 | 184.6 | +16.1% |
| 2023 | 197.0 | +6.7% |
| 2024 | 191.1 | -3.0% |
| 2025 | 185.4 | -3.0% |
What the shape tells you
The index fell in 2020, rose roughly 26% across 2021 and 2022, peaked in December 2023, and has drifted down since. In July 2026 it turned mildly positive year on year for the first time in that decline. Read plainly: the sector took a large step up during the pandemic housing churn, gave part of it back as new supply landed, and is roughly flat now. Whether your local market follows that depends on how much has been built near you, which the national index cannot see.
What it is not
- It is not a dollar price. It is an index against December 2003. Converting it into a monthly rent for a 5×10 would require assumptions we would be inventing.
- It is not size specific. A 5×10 and a 10×30 are both inside it.
- It is not local. There is no metro or state breakdown in this series.
- It is not a street rate. It reflects what operators realise across their whole tenant base, including long-standing tenants on rates set years ago, so it moves more slowly than the price a new customer is quoted.
If you want a price for your city: get two or three quotes from operators near you for the same week, ask each what the rate becomes in month two, and compare those. That is the only number that is actually about you. Anything published as a national average, ours included when we published one, is a blend of markets you are not renting in.
Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Producer Price Index by Industry: Miniwarehouse and Self-Storage Unit Operators, series PCU531130531130. Retrieved via St. Louis Fed (FRED) on 2026-09-06; series last updated by BLS 2026-08-13. ↗ https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PCU531130531130