CHICAGO—Self-storage buildings have continued to spread through the country during the second quarter of 2013, according to a new report by MJ Partners Real Estate Services. The expansions by many of the leading storage companies continues the stupendous growth self-storage has undergone since the 1970's. That has many wondering whether institutional investors will eventually give the sector the same attention, and money, allocated to burgeoning sectors like student housing or healthcare real estate.

“Self-storage has been such a proven commodity year-after-year,” says Marc A. Boorstein, a principal of the Chicago-based MJ Partners. But one thing the sector lacks are comprehensive sources of information that will help prospective investors understand the marketplace and make decisions on allocating funds. MJ Partners wants to help change that, and says its “Self Storage Market Overview, Second Quarter 2013,” an analysis of self storage companies' recent earnings results, “serves as a benchmark of the current investment market, operations performance, capital markets and trends within the self storage industry.”

An increasing number of Americans are in less stable living arrangements, MJ Partners says, and that increases the demand for self-storage facilities. Much of this can be attributed to the economic conditions during the past few years. The report cites Jed Kolko, the chief economist at Trulia, Inc., who says that “2.4 million Americans are now considered 'missing households' either living with parents, seniors living with adult offspring, and unrelated people renting rooms. Far higher than only the 900,000 in 2008.”