Why? Handicap accessibility regulations, parking regulations, etc etc have greatly increased the construction cost of new houses. i.e. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/05/19/upshot/forty-...
Storage facilities do not have people living in them and are therefore immune from lots of these expensive regulations. Hence, they are now an increasingly good deal compare to residential real estate.
The citation you provided doesn't assert anything about cost per sqft of living space; it's mostly focused on the feel and vibe of NYC post-regulation.
And I'm willing to put money on the fact that these particular regulations are no match to the outsized demand for housing in more regulated municipalities.
The vast majority of price changes is cities becoming more desirable via lower crime and reduced pollution + failing to keep up with housing demand + lower effective interest rates.
Consider the infrastructure changes around DC in the last 30 years vs the changes in population. In 2010 DC had 600k people in 2017 it hit 694k that's a dramatic shift. On the other hand it's population had been falling from 1945 to 2000. The people who left still commuted to DC, but infrastructure was not keeping up.
If it were allowed, I would have absolutely lived in a storage unit through most of my 20s, and I think a lot of my friends would have too.
I was specifically alluding to the fact that if we continue to pile up building regulations, but don't increase regulations on storage units, then a lot of people will only be able to afford living in "storage" units.
To be fair, storage units with a communal bathroom and power are more than most folks had circa 1930.
I actually don't think we are more than 5 years away from people spending more time in VR than they do in meatspace.