National Self-Storage Occupancy Stabilizes at 84%, Down From a 94% Peak
New TractIQ data shows physical occupancy has reset to pre-pandemic norms. The national average, though, hides a widening split between markets and between operators.
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National self-storage physical occupancy has settled at 84.4% in the fourth quarter of 2025, roughly nine and a half points below the 93.9% high it reached during the 2021 pandemic storage surge, according to TractIQ occupancy data. The pullback reads as a return to long-run norms rather than a downturn: occupancy is holding firmly in the mid-80s band historically tied to a healthy, well-absorbed sector.
The headline looks like a decline, but it is really a normalization. Occupancy has reset to about where it sat before the pandemic, and the mid-80s is a healthy level. The 2021 surge was always temporary. What matters now is not the national number, it is how far individual markets sit from it.
A normalization, not a downturn
Occupancy climbed through the 2020 and 2021 moving frenzy, when housing churn and work-from-home demand filled units faster than operators could raise rates. That demand was real, but temporary. Since the 2021 peak, occupancy has drifted down in an orderly fashion and is now down about 0.9 points year over year, a mild move that signals stabilization rather than stress.
Just as telling is how tightly facilities cluster. Only about 4% of facilities run above 90% occupancy today, and roughly 9% sit below 80%. A distribution that tight shows resilience and suggests genuine outperformance is rare, and the sub-80% left tail is exactly where value-add buyers hunt.
Occupancy is not operator quality, it is strategy
In the latest full-coverage quarter, REIT-managed facilities led at 90.4%, ahead of independents at 86.8% and the large "sophisticated" operators at 83.9%. It is tempting to read that as REITs simply owning better assets.
That is not always the case. Before the pandemic, all three groups ran neck and neck in the high 80s, and independents often posted the highest occupancy of all. What opened the gap is strategy. Through the normalization, sophisticated operators leaned hard on rate, pushing street and existing-customer increases and deliberately trading physical occupancy for revenue per occupied square foot. The lesson for underwriting: a lower-occupancy portfolio may be earning more per foot than a fuller one that is simply under-pricing. Read occupancy alongside rate and revenue, never on its own.
The fact that sophisticated, non-publicly-traded operators run 83.9% occupancy compared to 86.8% for independent operators tells the story. Occupancy isn't the end goal, NOI is. Publicly traded companies maximize their earnings under a different equation.
The average hides the deal
Occupancy is a regional story. The strongest states, led by Oregon (92.7%), Virginia (89.9%), and New Jersey (89.4%), sit near the top of the national range, while the softest, Mississippi (73.1%), Louisiana (77.5%), and Iowa (81.1%), anchor the bottom. That is a 19.6-point gap from best to worst, and the gap inside a single state can be wider still. In Arizona, Lake Havasu City is up 3.2 points to 92.4% while Tucson is down 10.4 points to 81.9%.
Even within one metro, the distance between the best and worst facilities is large. On average, the middle 50% of facilities in a market span about 9.2 points of occupancy, proof that location, asset quality, and operator skill still drive outcomes. The discipline is the same at every level of zoom: screen the state, then the metro, then the facility.
Supply is the risk that breaks a deal
New construction is the single factor most capable of sinking an otherwise sound investment, but raw pipeline size is not the risk. The largest pipelines sit in big metros like New York that can absorb new product on deep, steady demand. The real danger is pipeline landing on already-soft occupancy. By that screen, roughly 4 markets flag as high risk and another 27 warrant caution, concentrated in Sun Belt and Florida metros that overbuilt after the pandemic boom. Phoenix, Orlando, and Tampa are each carrying multi-million-square-foot pipelines onto softening demand.
Rates reset, and discounts are starting to narrow
Pricing is where the normalization shows up most clearly. The benchmark 10x10 street rate has fallen from a cycle peak near $2.12 per square foot in 2021 to about $1.29 today, roughly a 39% decline in nominal asking rents. The more forward-looking signal is the web-to-street discount, the concession operators advertise online to win a move-in. That discount has tightened from about 20.2% a year ago to 18.1% today, a modest but constructive sign that pricing power is beginning to return.
See your market, not the national average
The TractIQ Occupancy Dashboard drops from the national trend to the state and metro level, supplemented by supply and pricing data.
Frequently asked questions
What is the current national self-storage occupancy rate?+
As of the most recent full-coverage reading (Q4 2025), national physical occupancy is about 84.4%, down roughly 0.9 points year over year and about 9.5 points below the 2021 pandemic-era peak of 93.9%. That still sits within the mid-80s range historically associated with a healthy market.
Why do REIT-managed stores show higher occupancy?+
Largely by strategy, not permanent quality. Large sophisticated operators have traded occupancy for rate, pushing prices and accepting lower fill. Before the pandemic, independents, REITs, and sophisticated operators all ran in the high 80s. Occupancy should be read alongside rate and revenue, not on its own.
Which self-storage markets are most at risk from oversupply?+
Markets that pair heavy construction pipelines with already-soft occupancy, concentrated in Sun Belt and Florida metros such as Phoenix, Orlando, and Tampa. Large pipelines in high-occupancy metros like New York or Los Angeles are far less concerning, because demand is strong enough to absorb them.
Are self-storage rents still falling?+
Asking rents have reset significantly. The benchmark 10x10 street rate is down about 39% from its 2021 peak. But the web-to-street discount has begun to narrow (from about 20.2% to 18.1% year over year), an early sign that pricing power is returning in many markets.
About the data: Occupancy data is made available in partnership with CredIQ. It comes from facilities that report financials and occupancy to the SEC because they carry CMBS loans, where that disclosure is a requirement. TractIQ tracks roughly $50 billion of facilities with CMBS data. Figures reflect TractIQ's self-storage occupancy dataset as of the latest refresh: the national trend runs through Q4 2025, and market-level cross-sections through the most recent full-coverage quarter, covering 109 metropolitan markets. Occupancy refers to physical occupancy.
