KeyBanc’s near-real-time credit and debit card data show a marked deceleration in self-storage spending growth in August. Year-over-year spending per transaction rose 0.9% in August, down from the 2.3% increase recorded in July, representing a 140 basis point slowdown in the growth rate.
Average spending per self-storage transaction came in at $172.33 for August, a 1.4% month-over-month decline from July’s $174.77. That drop runs counter to the usual seasonal pattern: KeyBanc notes that the historical average change from July to August is a 0.2% increase. In KeyBanc’s dataset, which stretches beyond 10 years, August’s decline ranks as the second-weakest July-to-August outcome.
KeyBanc’s Key First Look product tracks approximately 147,000 self-storage transactions nationwide in the second quarter of 2026 and is used as a proxy for in-place contract rents. Looking at a three-month rolling measure covering June through August 2026, average revenue per transaction rose 1.3% year-over-year. That trailing three-month gain is softer than the 1.7% increase recorded in the immediately prior three-month period, which KeyBanc identified as the strongest trailing three-month result since July 2024.
The firm observed that a stable September reading would likely lift the July-through-September growth rate because the calculation would drop June’s weaker 0.7% year-over-year comparison. KeyBanc also said August’s spending pattern is consistent with remarks from self-storage real estate investment trusts and private operators following their second-quarter 2026 earnings reports and the Self Storage Association Fall Conference.
Finally, KeyBanc flagged that the sector is entering the seasonally slower fall leasing period, which provides context for the softer month-over-month and trailing three-month trends the card data currently reveal.