U-Haul: From 30 Trailers to a $20.5 Billion Real Estate Empire

U-Haul Holding Company (NYSE: UHAL) operates the largest do-it-yourself moving network in North America and has quietly become the third-largest self-storage operator on the continent, with 96.5 million square feet of rentable space across 2,046 storage facilities (1). The company generated $5.83 billion in revenue in fiscal year 2025 (ended March 31, 2025), up 3.6% year-over-year, driven by 8.0% growth in self-storage revenues and steady equipment rental demand (2). What began in 1945 as a 30-trailer operation in rural Washington state has evolved into a vertically integrated moving ecosystem spanning 24,000+ locations across all 50 states and 10 Canadian provinces (3), with total assets exceeding $20.5 billion (4).

For commercial real estate professionals, U-Haul's story is particularly significant. The company has executed one of the largest adaptive reuse programs in American CRE history, converting 120+ former Kmart stores and hundreds of other vacant big-box retail locations into climate-controlled self-storage facilities (5). AMERCO Real Estate Company invests $500 million to $1 billion annually in real estate acquisition and development, making U-Haul one of the most active commercial property buyers in the country.

The Founding Story That Built America's Moving Brand

Leonard Samuel "Sam" Shoen was a 29-year-old Navy veteran when he and his first wife, Anna Mary Carty Shoen, tried to rent a trailer to move from Los Angeles to Portland, Oregon in the summer of 1945. No one offered one-way trailer rentals. That frustration became the founding insight for U-Haul: rent a trailer "here," return it "there." With $5,000 in savings and a 1937 Ford, the couple drove to the Carty family ranch in Ridgefield, Washington, built their first trailers in a milk house, and by year's end had 30 orange trailers parked on gas station lots across the Pacific Northwest at $2.00 per day (3).

The genius was the distribution model. Rather than owning rental locations, Shoen partnered with independently owned gas stations. Station owners served as rental agents, earning commissions for renting trailers from their unused lot space. Customers were offered discounts if they recruited a new gas station dealer at their destination, creating a self-expanding network built on little more than a handshake and a shared upside. By 1949, one-way rental was available city-to-city across most of the United States. By 1955, the fleet topped 10,000 trailers with nationwide brand recognition. The dealer model remains fundamentally unchanged 80 years later, with roughly 21,600 independent dealers still forming the backbone of U-Haul's distribution network, paying zero startup costs while U-Haul provides equipment, branding, and systems (6).

The company hit several transformational milestones through the mid-20th century. Box trucks purpose-built for residential moving launched in 1959, when the trailer fleet already numbered 42,600 units. Corporate headquarters relocated from Portland to Phoenix in 1967. AMERCO was incorporated as a holding company in Reno, Nevada in 1969 (7). U-Haul entered self-storage in 1974 with chain-link containers inside existing buildings and began acquiring roughly 1,000 properties for company-owned locations. On December 19, 2022, AMERCO officially renamed itself U-Haul Holding Company and moved its stock listings to the NYSE (2).

A Family Feud That Cost $1.47 Billion

The Shoen family saga is one of the most dramatic chapters in American corporate history. Leonard Shoen had 12 children from multiple marriages, each gifted stock at birth. By the early 1980s, his children collectively owned approximately 95% of AMERCO shares while Leonard retained only 2% (7). A philosophical divide emerged: sons Joe and Mark Shoen believed their father's diversification strategy, company-owned U-Haul Centers renting everything from jet skis to party supplies, was destroying value. They resigned from the company in 1979 and spent seven years marshaling sibling support.

In 1986, Joe and Mark Shoen staged a boardroom coup, ousting their father as chairman. Joe became chairman and immediately refocused the company on core businesses: trucks, trailers, boxes, and storage. The counter-attack was fierce. Leonard and loyal son Sam fought back through proxy battles, and the 1989 annual meeting reportedly devolved into a physical brawl (7). At the heart of the litigation was Joe's 1988 issuance of 8,099 shares of treasury stock to friendly executives, which tipped the shareholder balance in his favor.

Then came tragedy. On August 6, 1990, Eva Berg Shoen, Sam Shoen's wife, was found shot to death in the family's Telluride, Colorado home. The San Miguel County sheriff called it a "quasi-professional hit." Leonard publicly accused Joe and Mark of involvement. Ex-convict Frank Marquis ultimately pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 1994, claiming it was a botched burglary, though unresolved questions lingered. In October 1994, a Maricopa County jury awarded Leonard's faction $1.47 billion in damages (later reduced to $461.8 million) over the improper stock issuance. AMERCO indemnified the directors, shouldering the payments. Leonard Shoen died on October 4, 1999, at age 83 (7).

Edward J. "Joe" Shoen remains chairman, president, and CEO today. The Shoen family controls approximately 55% of U-Haul Holding Company. Mark Shoen separately built a self-storage empire through SAC Holdings, entities that acquired hundreds of properties from AMERCO with over $600 million in U-Haul-financed loans, making him a billionaire with an estimated net worth of $3.6 billion.

AMERCO's Financial Profile Reveals a Margin Compression Story

U-Haul Holding Company's five-year revenue trajectory shows strong top-line growth bookending a pandemic-era surge, but profitability has eroded sharply from peak levels as fleet depreciation costs mount.

Revenue breaks down across several streams. Self-moving equipment rental contributed $3.73 billion (64% of total), growing 2.8% in FY2025. Self-storage revenues reached $897.9 million (15.4%), up 8.0%, the fastest-growing segment. Moving and storage product sales added $327.5 million, property management fees $36.8 million, and the U-Box portable container program helped drive "other revenue" up 8.5% to $506.3 million. Insurance subsidiaries RepWest and Oxford Life contributed $383.6 million combined (2).

The margin compression story centers on fleet economics. Total depreciation expense surged to $971.9 million in FY2025, up $154 million from the prior year, as U-Haul digested high-cost fleet replacements made during the pandemic-era supply crunch. Net gains on equipment disposals collapsed from $154 million in FY2024 to just $13.7 million in FY2025. Chairman Joe Shoen acknowledged the headwind directly, noting the company is "seeing the high prices we paid for fleet replacements over the last thirty months impact the income statement." He expects the drag to bottom out within the calendar year (2).

On the balance sheet, U-Haul holds $20.5 billion in total assets (March 31, 2025), with $7.2 billion in total debt, split among real estate-secured ($2.7B), fleet-secured ($2.8B), and unsecured ($1.7B) obligations. Stockholders' equity stands at $7.5 billion (4). The stock trades at $47.29 (UHAL) with a market capitalization of approximately $9.3 billion and a trailing P/E of roughly 72x, reflecting the depressed earnings cycle. UHAL.B (the non-voting common stock) pays a modest quarterly dividend of $0.05 per share ($0.20 annualized, approximately 0.4% yield). The shares are down approximately 30% over the past year from an all-time post-split high of $78.40 in October 2024.

How U-Haul Became a Self-Storage Giant Through Adaptive Reuse

U-Haul's self-storage expansion is the most consequential growth story in the company's recent history, and arguably the most relevant for CRE professionals. The portfolio has roughly doubled in five years, from approximately 60.7 million square feet and 697,000 units in early 2020 to 96.5 million square feet and 1.1 million units as of January 2026 (1). In fiscal 2025 alone, U-Haul added 6.5 million net rentable square feet and 71,000 new rooms. According to the MMCG database, U-Haul was the top contributor to new self-storage inventory in 2025, adding nearly 3.5 million square feet, an 11% portfolio expansion (8).

The engine behind this growth is AMERCO Real Estate Company's adaptive reuse program, which converts vacant commercial buildings into self-storage facilities. Approximately 70% of U-Haul's 2,400+ company-operated facilities are adaptive reuse conversions (5). The company has converted over 120 former Kmart locations alone, repurposing approximately 12 million square feet of dead retail space. Beyond Kmart, U-Haul has converted former Sears stores, Sam's Clubs, JCPenneys, a Nabisco bakery in Detroit (250,000 SF), a Planters Peanut factory in San Francisco, movie theaters, restaurants, and cold-storage warehouses.

The economics are compelling for specific reasons. A typical Kmart conversion involves a 100,000 to 115,000 square foot building on 8 to 12 acres, acquired for $3 to $7 million, yielding 700 to 1,000+ climate-controlled storage units. The 13-store Kmart/Sears portfolio acquired in 2018 and 2019 averaged roughly $4.8 million per property (9). While conversion costs are not necessarily cheaper than ground-up construction, adaptive reuse delivers three critical advantages: faster time-to-market (shaving a year or more off development), easier entitlements (less community resistance than new storage construction), and infill locations already positioned on commercial corridors with established traffic patterns (10).

AMERCO Real Estate Company's site selection criteria are precise: 30,000+ daily traffic count, 60,000 people within a three-mile radius, 30% renter penetration nearby, 200-foot minimum street frontage, and existing buildings of 60,000+ gross square feet on at least half an acre. For bare land, they target 4+ acres with utility access and rectangular lots (6). These specifications reflect U-Haul's dual need: self-storage facilities that generate recurring revenue and truck/trailer staging areas that serve the equipment rental business.

Same-store occupancy runs at 91.9%, competitive with the major self-storage REITs, though total portfolio occupancy sits at 78.1% because so many newer facilities are still in lease-up (2). Revenue per occupied square foot averages $16.91 annually, well below Public Storage's $22.59 and New York market rates of $23.04, but above the national average. In a notable strategic move, U-Haul launched a 1-Year Price Lock program in 2026, deliberately eschewing the REIT industry's standard practice of aggressive in-place rent increases that drives tenant churn.

Compared to the major self-storage REITs, U-Haul ranks third:

The C-corporation structure is a deliberate strategic choice. Unlike REITs that must distribute 90%+ of taxable income as dividends, U-Haul retains and reinvests earnings into fleet and real estate, fueling its aggressive expansion without mandatory distributions.

24,000 Locations and a 50% Share of DIY Moving

U-Haul's competitive position requires understanding a critical distinction: in the total truck rental market, a roughly $34.5 billion industry according to the MMCG database, U-Haul holds roughly 10 to 12% market share because that market is dominated by commercial leasing giants like Ryder ($12.6B revenue) and Penske ($10.1B+). But in its actual core business, do-it-yourself consumer moving, U-Haul commands over 50% market share, far ahead of Penske (approximately 10%) and Budget (approximately 10%).

The numbers tell the dominance story. U-Haul operates approximately 203,000 trucks, 137,400 trailers, and 41,700 towing devices across 24,000+ locations (1). Budget Truck Rental fields roughly 32,000 trucks across 2,800 locations. Enterprise Truck Rental has grown to 575+ locations but only offers round-trip rentals, making it a non-factor for long-distance one-way moves. An estimated 90% of the U.S. population lives within five miles of a U-Haul dealer.

The dealer network remains the company's deepest competitive moat. Of U-Haul's 24,000+ locations, roughly 2,400 are company-operated full-service centers generating over half of all moving equipment rental revenue. The remaining 21,600+ are independent dealers, gas stations, auto repair shops, and small businesses that dedicate lot space and staff time to U-Haul rentals in exchange for approximately 21% commission, with zero startup costs (6). This creates a self-reinforcing network effect: more locations mean better one-way options, which attract more customers, which attract more dealers. No competitor has replicated this model at scale.

The one-way rental capability is particularly decisive. U-Haul processes over 2.5 million one-way transactions annually (11), trucks, trailers, and U-Box containers moved between cities. Enterprise cannot compete here (round-trip only). Penske offers competitive unlimited-mileage one-way pricing but has far fewer locations. Budget has been scaling back operations. The practical result is that for many geographic corridors, U-Haul is the only viable option for a one-way move, giving the company significant pricing power on high-demand routes.

From South Carolina to Truck Share 24/7: What's Happening Now

U-Haul's annual Growth Index, compiled from those 2.5+ million one-way transactions, has become the industry's authoritative migration tracker. South Carolina topped the 2024 index for the first time, with 51.7% of all U-Haul traffic being inbound arrivals. Texas reclaimed the #1 spot in 2025 for the seventh time in ten years (11). California has ranked last for six consecutive years, while the Dallas-Fort Worth metro led all cities in net one-way gains in both 2024 and 2025. The data reveals a persistent Sun Belt migration pattern: Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee, and South Carolina have dominated the top five for nearly a decade.

On the technology front, U-Haul Truck Share 24/7 continues expanding across the network, using patented Live Verify facial-recognition technology to let customers self-dispatch and self-return trucks via smartphone without visiting a counter. New dedicated Truck Share facilities are being built in markets like Ozark, Missouri. The U-Box portable container program has emerged as a meaningful growth driver, contributing to the 8.5% increase in "other revenue" in FY2025 (2). U-Box competes directly with PODS, though U-Haul paid a $60.7 million jury verdict to PODS in 2014 over trademark infringement.

The fleet grew substantially in 2025, with trucks increasing from roughly 192,000 to 203,000 units, a 5.7% expansion (13). U-Haul manufactures its own truck boxes (Luton bodies) and mates them to Ford, GMC, and Ram chassis, providing partial insulation from tariff-driven cost pressures. Management indicated on earnings calls that the 25% Section 232 tariffs on imported vehicles and parts have not significantly affected customer moving decisions, though concrete and steel cost increases could modestly impact the development pipeline.

New facility openings in 2024 and 2025 illustrate the adaptive reuse strategy in action: a former Kmart in Lima, Ohio (104,685 SF, 700 climate-controlled units), an 840-room facility in Olive Branch, Mississippi with a 571-container U-Box warehouse, a new market entry in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, and the acquisition of a former Extra Space Storage facility in Minneapolis with 975 indoor units (13). As of March 2025, approximately 15 million net rentable square feet remained in the development or pending pipeline.

Industry Tailwinds Meet Housing Market Headwinds

According to the MMCG database, the truck rental industry generated approximately $34.5 billion in 2025, with projected growth toward $39 billion by 2030. The moving services industry stands at roughly $23.5 billion, with the self-storage market encompassing over 2.1 billion square feet across 50,000+ U.S. facilities (12). All three sectors face the same fundamental tension: strong structural demand drivers colliding with a frozen housing market.

Mortgage rates averaging 6.46% as of early April 2026 (Freddie Mac) have created a powerful "lock-in effect," with homeowners holding pandemic-era sub-4% mortgages reluctant to sell, suppressing housing turnover to near 30-year lows (8). Fannie Mae projects total home sales of just 4.72 million in 2025 and 5.16 million in 2026, well below pre-pandemic norms. Interstate migration has slowed approximately 15% compared to five years ago. Joe Shoen acknowledged the impact: U-Haul remains slightly below where he expected to be on one-way moving transactions (2).

Paradoxically, the same housing constraints fuel self-storage demand. An estimated 16% of Americans have rented a storage unit to cope with housing size mismatch, and 25% more are considering it (12). The self-storage sector delivered approximately 55.1 million square feet of new supply in 2025 (2.7% of existing inventory), but the development wave has crested, with 2026 deliveries projected at 51.1 million square feet, a 7.3% decrease. National occupancy sat at 82.2% as of September 2025, with move-in rates down 10.7% year-over-year, though industry observers expect stabilization as supply growth moderates and demand catches up (12).

Rate forecasts offer potential relief. Fannie Mae projects mortgage rates ending 2026 at 5.9 to 6.0% (8), with Morgan Stanley seeing potential lows of 5.50 to 5.75% by mid-year. Even a modest decline could unlock meaningful housing turnover and moving activity. Meanwhile, e-commerce growth, gig-economy truck demand, millennial household formation, and continued remote-work migration provide long-term structural support across all three sectors.

Conclusion

U-Haul Holding Company sits at a unique intersection of logistics, commercial real estate, and consumer services that no competitor has fully replicated. The company's $20.5 billion asset base and 80 years of dealer network development create barriers to entry that dwarf any single competitive threat. The most important strategic insight for CRE professionals is the self-storage trajectory: U-Haul has doubled its storage footprint in five years, is the fastest-growing major operator, and its adaptive reuse program has converted more than 120 dead Kmarts into productive commercial assets, a model with significant implications for the ongoing retail-to-industrial/storage conversion wave.

The near-term financial picture is pressured. Net income declined 42% in FY2025 to $367.1 million, and Q3 FY2026 swung to a loss, as elevated fleet depreciation works through the income statement (2). But the underlying business remains durable: equipment rental revenue grew, storage revenue grew 8%, and U-Haul's one-way network monopoly is structurally intact. When housing market turnover normalizes, and mortgage rates are forecast to decline toward 6%, U-Haul's operational leverage should produce a meaningful earnings recovery. The company that Sam and Anna Mary Shoen built from a milk house in Ridgefield has become, whether Wall Street fully appreciates it or not, one of the most consequential real estate operators in North America.

About MMCG

MMCG Invest, LLC provides independent, third-party feasibility studies for SBA and USDA guaranteed loan programs across all commercial real estate asset classes, including, truck rentals, self storages, RV Storages and warehouses. Our studies meet the analytical rigor required by leading government-guaranteed lenders and USDA. For more information, contact our team directly.

Interest in discussing market conditions for your self-storage project?

Viola Sauer | Analyst | mmcginvest.com 

Contact: viola@mmcginvest.com

Phone: (628) 225-1110

Disclaimer: This report is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Data presented herein is derived from proprietary MMCG databases and third-party sources believed to be reliable; however, MMCG Invest makes no representation as to the accuracy or completeness of such information. Figures from third-party industry databases have been independently verified and, where appropriate, adjusted to reflect MMCG's proprietary analytical methodology. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

Sources:

(1) U-Haul Holding Company, "U-Haul Growth Index: Top U.S. Growth Metros and Cities of 2025 Announced," January 2026. Available at: uhaul.com

(2) U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, U-Haul Holding Co. Form 8-K, Fiscal 2025 Earnings Release (Period: May 28, 2025). Filed May 29, 2025. Available at: sec.gov

(3) U-Haul, "Our History." Available at: uhaul.com/About/History

(4) Yahoo Finance, "U-Haul Holding Company (UHAL) Balance Sheet." Available at: finance.yahoo.com

(5) J. Miller, "1,000,000 Units and Counting: U-Haul's Self Storage Business Has Been Built Via Adaptive Reuse," Substack, 2024.

(6) AMERCO Real Estate Company, "Site Criteria for Acquisitions." Available at: amercorealestate.com

(7) FundingUniverse, "History of AMERCO." Available at: fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/amerco-history

(8) Fannie Mae, "Mortgage Rates Expected to Move Below 6 Percent by End of 2026," Housing Forecast, March 2026. Available at: fanniemae.com

(9) InsideSelfStorage, "U-Haul Acquires 13 Kmart, Sears Stores for Self-Storage, Truck-Rental Conversions." Available at: insideselfstorage.com

(10) InsideSelfStorage, "Adaptive Reuse in Self-Storage: The Case for Conversions and Requirements for Success." Available at: insideselfstorage.com

(11) U-Haul, "U-Haul Growth Index: Texas Back on Top as No. 1 Growth State of 2025," January 2026. Available at: uhaul.com

(12) SpareFoot, "U.S. Self-Storage Industry Statistics," Updated 2025. Available at: sparefoot.com

(13) Business Wire, "U-Haul Holding Company Reports Fiscal 2025 Financial Results," May 28, 2025. Available at: businesswire.com