When Kara Kalegalji went through a breakup six years ago, she had to move out and get a place of her own. The new place was

smaller, so small that she didn't have room for all of her stuff and she didn't want

to get rid of it. So she decided to rent a storage unit. Mainly things I stored were books,

kitchenware, I have a lot of clothes and gear you could say. So winter clothes or summer clothes or

snowboards. As people in my family started moving out of their homes I started

inheriting a lot of you know knickknacks, heirlooms, which I just didn't have room for.

Kolojie isn't alone in her quest for more space.

It's estimated that one in five Americans rents a storage unit.

High housing costs, urbanization, and rampant consumerism

have made self-storage into an estimated $45 billion industry in the US alone.

And real estate investors are clamoring for a piece of the action.

Self-storage has become sexy because people have recognized what a strong fundamental business it is.

Americans love their stuff and they don't want to get rid of it.

For the Freak economics radio network,

this is the economics of everyday things. I'm Zachary Crockett. Today, storage units.

The modern self-storage industry traces its roots back to the 1960s. The earliest facilities were more about investing in land

than building a viable business. It began with folks who have good vision and they imagined where population was going.

That's Anne Marie de Koster.

She's a consultant who's been in the self storage industry for 22 years.

They tended to buy land outside of city centers anticipating that the population would move there.

And in the meantime, they put a cell storage facility on it so that they could generate cash.

For these early entrepreneurs, storage units were what's called a covered land play.

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