Self-storage trusts are the hottest Reits in US

[SEATTLE] Kelsey Smith is a single mother who works as a waitress in Midvale, Utah, and lives with a roommate in a small apartment in the Sugar House neighbourhood of Salt Lake City. Ms Smith, 26, pays US$500 a month for daycare for her three-year-old, which makes it hard to get by on a waitress's pay. She says she's had to move to cheaper lodgings six or seven times.

Rather than drag all her belongings with her, Ms Smith rents a three-metre-by-five-metre self-storage unit, for which she pays US$80 a month - as much as two shifts' worth of wages and tips. The unit contains furniture and other items she's accumulated over the years - "just the things you'd need if you had a home", she says. "People don't want to let go."

Millions of Americans are like Kelsey Smith. They've got furniture and old photos, children's toys and bric-a-brac that they're loath to give up, yet they can't find a place for it in their homes, garages or apartments.