Guide · updated
Why storage prices double inside one city
In the median US market, the cheaper and dearer ends of the same 10×10 differ by 109%. Not different sizes, not different companies — the same product, a short drive apart.
- Ocala, FL $48
- Panama City Beach, FL $51
- Fayetteville, GA $55
- Webster, TX $67
- Phoenix, AZ $75
- Houston, TX $76
- Jacksonville, FL $78
- Austin, TX $105
- Boston, MA $130
- Jersey City, NJ $150
Self storage is priced the way hotel rooms are. Each facility sets rates against its own occupancy, and a branch that is three-quarters empty will undercut one that is nearly full even if they are ten minutes apart. Nothing about this is improper. What is unusual is that the operator publishes every one of those prices and never puts them on the same page.
Below are the 12 widest of the 170 markets where we hold priced 10×10s at 5 or more branches and the market publishes a page of its own. The comparison is between the 10th and 90th percentile rather than the single cheapest and dearest location — one unusually cheap unit should not be allowed to write the headline.
| Market | Branches | Cheaper end | Typical | Dearer end | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jersey City, NJ | 11 | $72 | $150 | $310 | 331% |
| Fayetteville, GA | 37 | $36 | $55 | $119 | 231% |
| Webster, TX | 26 | $36 | $67 | $118 | 228% |
| Panama City Beach, FL | 7 | $26 | $51 | $85 | 227% |
| Phoenix, AZ | 71 | $40 | $75 | $126 | 215% |
| Houston, TX | 178 | $40 | $76 | $126 | 215% |
| Jacksonville, FL | 23 | $52 | $78 | $162 | 212% |
| Ocala, FL | 35 | $26 | $48 | $81 | 212% |
| Boston, MA | 33 | $84 | $130 | $260 | 210% |
| Austin, TX | 54 | $60 | $105 | $185 | 208% |
| Daytona Beach, FL | 8 | $41 | $54 | $126 | 207% |
| Port Charlotte, FL | 7 | $26 | $33 | $79 | 204% |
Half the gap is not geography at all
The obvious reading of a spread this wide is that it is about where — one town is dearer than the next, so drive. That is half true, and the half matters.
Splitting each market's variation into the part that sits between its towns and the part that sits within them, across the 147 markets holding six or more priced branches in at least two towns: 50% of it is between towns and 50% is between branches of the same town. Two branches a few streets apart differ from each other about as much as the towns differ from one another.
So the driving lesson is only half the lesson. Before you plan a longer trip to a cheaper suburb, check the other branch in the town you are already in — on these numbers it is about as likely to hold the saving, and it costs you nothing to look. The market pages list every branch with its own price, which is the comparison this figure says is worth making.
What drives the gap. Three things, in roughly this order. Occupancy: a facility with empty units discounts to fill them, and that changes month to month. Land cost: a branch on expensive urban land carries rent that a suburban one does not. Unit features: a climate-controlled unit on an upper floor with elevator access is a different product from a drive-up unit, and both are sold as a 10×10.
That last point deserves care. Some of the spread you see is not a bargain, it is a different product — you are comparing a heated indoor unit to a metal roll-up you can back a van into. Before booking the cheapest row on any of our tables, check what the unit actually is on the operator's own page, which we link on every row.
What is genuinely actionable. The gap is largest on small units — a 5×5 has the widest percentage spread in almost every market — and smallest on the biggest units, where fewer facilities compete. If you are renting a small unit, widening your search by ten minutes of driving is worth more than any negotiation you will have at the counter.