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This may be a few days late for Auld Lang Syne and a bit early to be making a Christmas wish list for next December, but the self storage industry has behaved well and kept off the naughty list. Perhaps a New Year’s wish list is more appropriate a title, but if self storage owners could have their druthers, this may be a little of what they hope for in 2010:

Self Storage Investors

A rocky few years of commercial and residential real estate market has no doubt left the field of investors looking like a dried up river bed. And not only investors, but lenders closed their doors to new loan opportunities and tightened the noose for outstanding liens.

While the residential real estate market saw foreclosure and interest rates rise to a crippling high, the commercial real estate market likewise felt the same heat. However, self storage must have held an immunity idol somewhere inside a 5×10 storage space surrounded by tenants who kept renting.

Yes, self storage operators felt the loss of a few percentage points in revenue, but compared to other REITs over the past year, the storage industry was one of the only industries showing a profit and still able to draw lenders, however few and far between they might have been.

Charts and statistics can now support the past few years of the storage industry’s success, despite wavering real estate markets. This is promising and serious investors have their eye on self storage investment opportunities.

So, take heart, self storage owners. You may get your wish for 2010 and find a few more investors swimming in the pool this year. 

No New Taxes 

Some financial analysts and plenty of political bloggers predicted unfavorable tax changes for REITs after an Obama administration took office. Of course, on the other end, plenty of analysts and bloggers predicted tax relief for self storage owners and the like.

Only time will tell, but last year there were new tax benefits for self storage owners who could employ some savvy cost segregation methods to label their assets. But this technique was nothing new to storage owners looking to save on their taxable income and maximize credits.

Home Sweet Home Will Stay That Way

Residential real estate experts, or anyone with a search engine, can see that the band aid over a fallen economy has to be ripped off, and soon. A failed loan modification program has over 700,000 Americans in limbo with only 31,000 of the applicants successfully through the program and back on track, for now.

Banks will soon have to start processing foreclosure notices and the reaction could be dire for the self storage industry if tenants have to leave or become delinquent on their rental space.

On the other hand, Americans may react by holding their family memories together and keeping all the keepsakes and furniture that make a house a home in a storage unit until the are back on their fee.

Either way, families will be more aware of pennies leaving their pockets and self storage owners will be forced to pay attention to pennies flowing in and out of their office.

Self storage owners can expect change in 2010 and there is plenty of silver lining to the cloud, but a cloud there definitely is. However the self storage industry has a lot to hope for and wish for in the coming year.

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