One in three Americans rents a storage unit. The industry is thriving, even in rural areas. As Vermont Public's Mikaela Lefrak reports, self-storage operators in Vermont say waitlists are long and profits are big.
MIKAELA LEFRAK, BYLINE: There are 265 rentable storage units at Jericho Mini Storage. It's a spring morning, and owner David Raphael prepares to auction off a couple of the abandoned units.
DAVID RAPHAEL: So all I want is my unit back so I can re-rent it.
LEFRAK: Re-renting will be easy. He usually has a waitlist. He puts on some gloves and cuts a lock.
D RAPHAEL: All right, here we go.
LEFRAK: Inside is stuff, lots and lots of stuff - a ripped recliner, a grandfather clock, cardboard boxes, plastic bins. Later, at the auction, most everyone there has a storage unit story of their own.
DEBBIE FLEMING: My son's girlfriend - she rented one. There wasn't enough room for all her stuff and his (laughter).
JERRY TABOR: My sister does. Yeah. She's overflowing - she's got too much stuff, so she's got a storage locker to store stuff, so...
JOHN RAPHAEL: My son has a unit here, so...
LEFRAK: What's your son keeping in there?
LEFRAK: Debbie Fleming, Jerry Tabor and John Raphael are among the dozen or so people who show up for the auction. Nationwide, there are more than 50,000 self-storage facilities. That's more than all Dollar Generals, Subways and CVS outlets combined. And the number grows every month, according to Amy Spear. She's the president of the Vermont Chamber of Commerce.
AMY SPEAR: It's been one of the fastest growing real estate sectors in the country, and the United States has roughly 2.1 billion square feet of storage space.
LEFRAK: Some cities like New York and Miami have restricted the construction of new self-storage facilities. Officials say they take up prime real estate that could be used for high-density housing or pedestrian-friendly businesses, like grocery stores or retail. Vermont is nowhere near contemplating a ban, and new self-storage facilities do keep cropping up. Why?
SPEAR: In a nutshell, in many ways, the growth of storage units can tell us a lot about housing and demographics.
LEFRAK: Vermont has one of the tightest housing markets in the country, so people are often in smaller homes than they'd like. The state has a rapidly aging population, which means people are downsizing. Lisa Allard has seen this first hand. She's the site manager of a storage facility in Shelburne, Vermont.
LISA ALLARD: A lot of the older folks are discovering that smaller living is just as good as them big old farmhouses we grew up in, you know, saves on heat, saves on bills.
LEFRAK: So is that the kind of house that you grew up in?
ALLARD: Big old farmhouse, yeah.
ALLARD: I'm actually a minimalist.
LEFRAK: Allard adds that some of her clients don't have stable housing, and that's why they rent from her. A storage unit goes for an average of $119 a month. That's a whole lot cheaper than rent. Every once in a while, someone will rent one of her units and then try to live in it.
ALLARD: I have caught people over the years. I really watch over everything day and night.
LEFRAK: In nearby Burlington, the city itself rents a storage unit. When city employees clear out a homeless encampment, they put abandoned items there. The unit is full of tents, sleeping bags and other personal items. Nationally, just five companies control nearly 38% of self-storage space. They're steadily snapping up mom-and-pop-owned facilities, as the demand for storage just keeps growing. For NPR News, I'm Mikaela Lefrak in Burlington.
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