Short answer: In 2025 Mark looked at analysis suggesting tariffs act like a consumption tax that weighs most on lower- and middle-income households. Those customers already tend to have shorter storage stays, which means more turnover and marketing cost. The lasting lesson for him: pay closer attention to income levels and stability in a trade area.^[1]

The chain Mark describes #

1. Price increases on everyday goods cut into discretionary spending, especially for lower- and middle-income households.^[1]
2. In Mark’s experience those households already have shorter average stays.^[1]
3. Shorter stays mean more turnover and higher marketing costs to re-rent units.^[1]
4. In lease-up, a facility may rent the same unit two or three times before stabilizing, stretching the timeline into the loan’s interest-only period.^[1]

How it changed his trade-area analysis #

• He looks for trade areas with higher rent levels and higher median income than before.^[1]
• Median income by zip code or county can be too broad, so he and Inner Circle members use a subscription data tool’s neighborhood-level income index to check whether most of a trade area sits in the upper income tiers.^[1]

The wider lesson #

Mark’s takeaway from studying investors who saw the 2008 crisis coming: follow where money is actually moving, not media narratives. He also notes that how foreign investors view U.S. economic stability can influence long-term interest rates, which matter to every leveraged storage deal.^[1]

Trade policy changes often. This answer reflects Mark’s 2025 analysis, not a current forecast.

Related answers #

• What makes a good self-storage trade area?
• Is square foot per capita a reliable measure of self-storage demand?
• Is self-storage oversupplied, and where is the opportunity for smaller investors?

Sources #

Each numbered note above links to the post of Mark’s it comes from.

1. Tariffs, Trade Areas, and Self-Storage: Lessons From the “Big Short”, Mark Helm, August 8, 2025