There's such a killer rental market here that we don't target a specific population...there are plenty of folks who want to escape their home renovation for several months, place the in-laws close by but not too close, and more. 

But the single most important factor of any real estate investment is location.Investing in a small town might be ok but you don't want to invest in a town with declining population, no jobs, etc.My point here is just pay attention to this factor.

Giving ourselves the opportunity to build a more accurate expectation of NOI Initial expectations for COC is about 7%, which isn't amazing for a STR, I know, but we're also looking at a 2X equity multiple and a 10% IRR, but with a lot of room for upside on market appreciation (market has been the fastest growing in its MSA over the past 10 years and shows no signs of stopping in terms of population, and job opportunities, and long-term price growth).

Things such as: population growth, median income, supply of other storage facilities, and demand at those storage facilities. 

Population and demographics is a big player in your formula.

Tradoc (Training bases) These have a large short-term (3-9 month) population and a small permanent  party (3-year) population. 2 Forscom (regular bases) all most 100% permanent party population. 

The population growth here has been incredible.

@Daniel WhiddonThe population is very small in the cities that you mentioned.

We are seeing a huge segment of the population moving south towards this area because of the rent in the surrounding areas are so much.

A significant portion of the population of this country had severely limited or virtually no access to anything worthwhile.