TractIQ's national benchmarks as of July 31, 2026, show average monthly street rates at $1.60 per rentable square foot, up 6.7% year over year, per the company's market data page. Web rates averaged $1.31 per square foot, up 1.6%. The street-rate turn follows three months of negative year-over-year readings in TractIQ's April 2026 update and lands the same week Marcus & Millichap sold a Phoenix Extra Space asset posting 13% revenue growth.
This is the pricing inflection operators have been waiting for since Sun Belt supply peaked. It is not uniform. It is national.
What Changed Between April and July 2026?
TractIQ's April 30, 2026 benchmarks showed street rates at $1.50 per square foot, down 1.3% year over year, with web rates at $1.24 PSF, down 2.4%. Your Ciao covered that split in May, framing widening street-web spreads as lost pricing power.
Three months later, both channels are positive. Street rates accelerated harder.
| Metric | July 31, 2026 | YoY Change |
|---|---|---|
| Avg. monthly street rate | $1.60 PSF | +6.7% |
| Avg. monthly web rate | $1.31 PSF | +1.6% |
| 10x10 NC street rate | $1.37 PSF | n/a |
| 10x10 CC street rate | $1.62 PSF | n/a |
| 10x10 NC web rate | $1.14 PSF | n/a |
| 10x10 CC web rate | $1.31 PSF | n/a |
The gap between $1.60 street and $1.31 web, roughly 18%, still reflects online discounting. But when street rates grow 6.7% while web rates grow 1.6%, operators are recovering walk-in pricing faster than they are pulling back promotions. That is a demand signal, not just a calendar effect.
Who Is Actually Filling Units?
Occupancy by management type tells the recovery story more clearly than a single national average.
TractIQ reports Q1 2026 occupancy across CMBS-reporting facilities at 87.7% for REITs, 81.8% for sophisticated operators, and 85.2% for non-designated operators. The REIT figure rose 3.6 percentage points from Q1 2025 to Q1 2026.
That 3.6-point climb matters because Storable's Q2 2026 Industry Pulse showed national occupancy near 78% for the broader operator base tracked across 30,000+ facilities. REIT-scale systems and data infrastructure are converting rate recovery into occupied square feet faster than the long tail.
Household penetration supports the structural demand case. TractIQ cites the Self Storage Association's 2025 Demand Study showing U.S. households using self-storage rising from 8.95% in 2005 to 12.60% in 2024. More households use storage than two decades ago. Distribution of that demand across operator tiers is what separates a 87.7% REIT from a 70%-range independent struggling in an oversupplied submarket.
Is the Supply Pipeline Still a Headwind?
Yes, but the headline overstates delivered risk.
TractIQ tracked more than 68,000 active U.S. facilities and roughly 3,600 known developments as of July 31, 2026. Projects under development equaled 6.79% of existing square footage. Critically, 68.5% of those projects remain in conceptual or planned phases.
That ratio aligns with TractIQ's May 2026 cancellation data showing hundreds of stalled and abandoned projects nationally. Maps still show dots on every Sun Belt interchange, but the projects most likely to deliver in the next 12 months are a fraction of the total count.
Yardi Matrix projected 2026 completions falling to 2.4% of existing stock, down from 3.0% in 2025. TractIQ's 6.79% pipeline figure includes early-stage projects that zoning moratoriums in Atlanta, Elk Grove, and other municipalities may prevent from ever breaking ground.
For stabilized assets in supply-constrained submarkets, the pipeline math is increasingly favorable. For lease-up developers competing against 2023-2024 deliveries, it is still brutal.
What Does the Street-Web Spread Signal for Revenue Management?
TractIQ's commentary ties widening street-versus-web spreads to discounting pressure and narrowing spreads to returning pricing power. July's data shows street rates pulling ahead.
That has direct implications for existing-customer rate increases. Operators who held off aggressive ECRI rounds during the correction now have street-rate benchmarks supporting higher contract rates. White Label Storage's August 7 ECRI Hub launch reflects the operational urgency: teams need tools to execute increases at scale without compliance errors.
REIT earnings confirm the revenue side. Extra Space posted 2.4% same-store revenue growth and 3.5% same-store NOI growth in Q2 2026. SmartStop raised guidance after 3.7% same-store NOI growth. National street rates turning positive in July is the macro data point behind those portfolio-level prints.
The Numbers Worth Writing Down
- Data as of: July 31, 2026
- Avg. monthly street rate: $1.60 PSF (+6.7% YoY)
- Avg. monthly web rate: $1.31 PSF (+1.6% YoY)
- Active U.S. facilities: 68,000+
- Known developments: ~3,600
- Pipeline as % of existing SF: 6.79%
- Pipeline in early planning: 68.5%
- REIT occupancy (Q1 2026): 87.7%
- REIT occupancy YoY change: +3.6 percentage points
- Household penetration (2024): 12.60% (vs. 8.95% in 2005)
- Prior street rate reading (Apr 30, 2026): $1.50 PSF (-1.3% YoY)
National Rates Turned. Local Markets Still Decide.
TractIQ's July 31 update is the clearest national evidence yet that self-storage street pricing crossed back into positive year-over-year territory. Web rates followed, but slower, which means the recovery is real and still promotional in places.
The operators who benefit first are the ones with occupancy above 85%, ECRI programs that capture contract-rate upside, and submarkets where 68.5% of the pipeline may never deliver. Everyone else is still competing on web discounts in a metro that built too much too fast.
Sources
- Self-Storage Market Data, TractIQ, updated July 31, 2026
- Self-Storage REITs Release Financial Results for Second-Quarter 2026, Inside Self-Storage