You’ve got your car payments, your fuel expenses, maintenance costs, insurance, and all those little DMV fees you have to pay over the years. You can tally in depreciation if you’re the type to trade a car in every five to 10 years, but there’s one ownership expense that we almost never talk about, and that’s storage. Many of us simply park the car in the driveway or garage, or, if we’re renting, we may have a designated parking spot, but not everyone gets a place to park included with their rent or mortgage.
Those living in dense metropolitan areas may spend hundreds of dollars a month for long-term parking, like renting a whole other apartment for your car. Others may have space in the driveway for one car, but nothing left over for a second vehicle, or their apartment complex may have strict rules on how many spaces they’re allowed. Our friends at Alan’s Factory Outlet recently conducted a study on the possibility of garage-sharing as a potential solution to the parking problem. Here’s what they turned up.
Hard Times Make Strange Neighbors
The long and short of this study is pretty simple: the rent is too darn high, groceries are too expensive, and home ownership is a tougher goal to achieve than ever. So, on the one hand, you’ve got a lot of people looking for a good deal on rental space, and, on the other, those who do have the space to rent may be thinking of capitalizing on that potential income stream.
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Alan’s Factory Outlet conducted the study by surveying 1,000 Americans who have access to a garage. Questions focused on the subject of garage-sharing, and how the current economic situation has us thinking about the way we utilize the space available to us. The data was collected in December 2025.
One In Three Americans Would Consider Renting Someone’s Garage
To go over some of the key findings in this study.
- 38% of respondents say that they would consider renting their garage out for extra income.
- 34% of respondents say they would consider renting out someone else’s garage.
- 78% of respondents say that financial pressure has them looking for new revenue streams.
- 37% of respondents have considered monetizing their home in some way in the last year.
- 45% of respondents say that a tax break or incentive would make them more likely to rent their garage out.
- 29% of respondents say that they wouldn’t have any interest in renting their garage out at all.
Among the reasons one might rent someone else’s garage, 67% of potential tenants say that they would use the space to store a vehicle. General storage made up 74%, and band practice or creative use actually made up 26% of the total. It’s been said that rock bands have become less relevant in modern music because nobody has space to practice anymore, so who knows, parking your Toyota Tacoma out in the driveway and renting your garage out as a makeshift studio could help to turn the tide.
What Should It Cost To Rent A Garage?
A garage is a fairly limited space, about the size of a studio apartment but without the facilities that make a studio apartment livable. So what should we be spending to store our car at the neighbor’s house?
- 16% of respondents would be willing to rent their garage out for around $200.
- 50% of homeowners would need $200–$499 to rent the space out.
- 34% of respondents would need at least $500 to rent their garage out.
- On the renter’s side, respondents, on average, would be willing to pay up to $177 a month to rent a garage.
- One in five respondents would be willing to pay more than $300 a month to rent a garage.
Obviously, a landlord would be happy to make as much money as they can renting out their garage, and a tenant would be happy to pay as little as possible to keep their Honda Civic indoors. The sweet spot seems to be somewhere in that $200–$300 range. Of course, that’s bound to vary by factors like location. In New York City, $300 to store your car for a month sounds like the deal of a lifetime. In sprawling western cities like Albuquerque and Phoenix, maybe not so much.
In any event, a homeowner who’s not using their garage would likely be happy to get that $177 a month to put towards groceries if that’s all anyone is willing to pay.
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Unsurprisingly, Gen Z is the demographic most enthusiastic about renting someone else’s garage. 83% of Gen Z respondents said they’d be willing to rent a garage, and they reported the highest potential price point, from the tenant’s side, as well, saying that they would be willing to pay as much as $216 a month for the space, where Boomers, the generation most likely to own a home, tapped out at just $142.
What Does It Cost To Park Your Car These Days, Anyway?
To get an idea of what it costs to store your car for a month, we can take a look at websites and apps like Spot Hero, which helps to connect drivers to parking spaces. To list some of the spaces featured in New York City right now, according to Spot Hero.
|
New York City Featured Parking Spaces |
|
|
West 44th St |
$425 |
|
Bitmore Theatre |
$450 |
|
50th St Broadway |
$700 |
|
300 West 55th St |
$375 |
|
65 West 55th St |
$449 |
|
Average Monthly Rate |
$480 |
That’s New York City, which is going to be on the more expensive end of the spectrum. If we look at, say, Orlando, here’s what we can turn up…
|
Orlando, FL Featured Parking Spaces |
|
|
Court Ave |
$190 |
|
East Central Blvd |
$110 |
|
220 East Pine St |
$175 |
|
270 East Pine St |
$175 |
|
Average Monthly Rate |
$162 |
Something to consider regarding these parking spaces: they might not be located in an area that is convenient for you. If you have to take two buses to get to your car, and then drive the last two miles to work every morning, then why have a car in the first place? New York City in particular is a pretty big city, and there’s a chance that your parking space won’t even be in the same borough, meaning you’d be better off simply renting a car when you need one than leasing a parking spot for nearly $500 a month.
This is why we think the garage-sharing idea is a pretty good one. Renting garage space from someone in walking distance might allow people who live in cities to actually spend less than they would taking a spot in a parking garage, and it could situate your storage situation closer to your own home. What’s more, you’re putting money back into your own community, instead of lining the pockets of some commercial property investment firm owned by corporate landlords you’ll never even meet.
Is It Even Legal To Rent Out Your Garage?
A question you might be asking right now: if renting your garage out is such an appealing concept, why don’t more people do it? The answer may come down to zoning laws and Home Owners’ Associations (HOA)s more than anything. Some residential areas forbid the use of properties for any commercial purpose, and renting out your garage would certainly qualify as such.
The real fun-killers are the HOAs, though. Even if it’s legal to rent your garage out for whatever you see fit, your HOA might take issue with someone who doesn’t live in the neighborhood coming and going at all hours of the day to drop the car off and pick it back up. Some HOAs won’t even let you park certain cars in your own dang driveway.
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Even where it’s legal, it might not be worth the stack of paperwork you have to read through, and the money you have to spend, to pay for liability insurance and cover the taxes, since you’re technically running a business out of your garage. So, yeah, renting your garage out is a good idea, but it might not be worth the hassle for everyone who owns one.
Sources: Alan’s Factory Outlet, Spot Hero.
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