Which way US storage prices are moving.
This page used to carry a national dollar figure for a 5×5, triangulated across an operator's published guide, an aggregator's guidance and a subscription rate product. It no longer does. Two of those three were not ours to republish, and the third was never a 5×5 figure. 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. 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 a national index cannot see.
What it is not
- Not a dollar price. It is an index against December 2003.
- Not size specific. A 5×5 and a 10×30 are both inside it.
- Not local. There is no metro or state breakdown in this series.
- Not a street rate. It reflects what operators realise across their whole tenant base, so it moves more slowly than the price a new customer is quoted.
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 2026-09-11; series last updated by BLS 2026-09-10.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PCU531130531130
National storage pricing, answered.
Is there a national price for a 5x5 storage unit?
Not one that any free public source publishes. Operator listing pages carry live rates for individual facilities but are not ours to copy and republish. The industry rate datasets that do cover the whole market are subscription research products. This site used to publish a triangulated figure assembled from both kinds of source; it was withdrawn on 6 September 2026 and has not been replaced with an estimate.
What does the BLS self-storage index measure?
Series PCU531130531130 is the US Bureau of Labor Statistics producer price index for miniwarehouse and self-storage unit operators, NAICS 531130. It tracks the revenue operators realise per unit of service sold, monthly since December 2003, indexed so that December 2003 equals 100. It is not seasonally adjusted. In August 2026 it stood at 186.9.
Are US storage prices going up or down in 2026?
Roughly flat. The index peaked at 200.6 in December 2023 and sits 6.8% below that today. In August 2026 it was -0.2% versus a year earlier, essentially unchanged, and it has moved sideways in a narrow band since the peak. It remains 25.4% above where it stood in January 2020.
Can I use the index to work out my rent?
No, and we will not do that arithmetic for you. It is an index rather than a dollar amount, it covers every unit size from a locker to a 10x30, it has no metro or state breakdown, and it reflects the whole tenant base rather than the rate a new customer is quoted. Converting it into a monthly price for a 5x5 would require assumptions we would be inventing.