One of the things we track here at Thinknum is the locations and prices of self-storage companies throughout the United States and the world.

Why? Well, because the self-storage business is a $38 billion industry in America, and it's growing. That's because Americans have stuff - lots of it - and they need a place to put it all.

So we took a look at America's largest self-storage company, Public Storage ($PSA), and cost-averaged over 100,000 individual storage units in 915 cities. We then grouped them by city to determine which cities are the most expensive - and cheapest - places to put your stuff. It turns out that the most-expensive place to store yourself is in Garden City, NY, an urban area just outside New York City. When it comes to the least-expensive place to store your things, Norman, Oklahoma (just outside of Oklahoma City) takes those honors.

The map below shows Public Storage locations in the United States (click for a larger view):

Most-Expensive Self-Storage Cities

City

State

Storage Unit Price (Average)

Garden City

NY

$283.18

Tarzana

CA

$273.07

Pearl City

HI

$256.35

Santa Barbara

CA

$248.78

Sunny Isles Beach

FL

$248.00

Fountain Valley

CA

$243.20

Valencia

CA

$241.78

Venice

CA

$239.31

San Rafael

CA

$238.27

Port Washington

NY

$225.93

Garden City, NY has a population of 22,616 (as of 2014) and a median household income of $163,266. Median gross rent in 2016 was $1,960.

Least-Expensive Self-Storage Cities

City

State

Storage Unit Price (Average)

Norman

OK

$43.28

Lawton

OK

$46.09

Augusta

GA

$49.18

Broken Arrow

OK

$49.69

Midfield

AL

$50.08

Ocala

FL

$50.18

Moore

OK

$50.25

Edmond

OK

$52.24

Kearns

UT

$55.33

Oklahoma City

OK

$56.79

Norman, Oklahoma has a population of 122,186 (as of 2016) and a median household income of $52,041. Median gross rent is $788.

Curious Thinknum subscribers can the the raw data here.

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