UHM acquires AmeriTrust assets, expands non-QM footprint

Union Home Mortgage Corp. (UHM) has acquired AmeriTrust Mortgage Corp. in an asset deal that closed in 45 days, boosting UHM’s exposure to the nonqualified mortgage (non-QM) market. Financial terms were not disclosed.

“There have been long-term relationships between some of the senior executives on both sides,” UHM CEO Bill Cosgrove told HousingWire. “We are acquiring the assets of AmeriTrust, predominantly a retail lender — there’s no servicing involved in the transaction.”

The deal, announced Friday to employees, comes amid difficult market conditions.

“Not only AmeriTrust, but the entire industry is still facing record-low gross margins, and that tells us the mortgage industry still has a great deal of overcapacity relative to the amount of home sales in the country,” Cosgrove said. “Consolidation in the mortgage industry will continue, and Union Home over 26 years has built ourselves into a safe, aggressive mortgage banker, and our strategy plays very well in today’s market.”

California-based AmeriTrust, a multichannel lender, had 92 sponsored loan officers in five active branches as of Friday, according to the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System (NMLS). Data from mortgage tech platform RETR shows it produced $913 million in mortgages in 2025, including $250 million on the wholesale side.

Cosgrove estimated UHM will bring on about 200 AmeriTrust employees, including loan officers, with roughly 20 to 25 overlapping roles. Union Home has 824 sponsored LOs across 192 active branches, according to NMLS.

Ohio-based UHM ranked as the 34th-largest mortgage lender in 2025, according to Inside Mortgage Finance, with $11.5 billion in production. Its business is split evenly between retail and wholesale, and it operates a consumer direct channel that supports portfolio retention. The company maintains a $23 billion servicing portfolio.

A move from UHM was widely expected after the lender signaled a strong appetite for M&A by hiring Renee Hildebrand from Guild Mortgage in February to pursue new opportunities.

The AmeriTrust deal follows UHM’s acquisitions of Nations Reliable Lending, Amerifirst Home Mortgage and Sierra Pacific Mortgage Co., and it could lift the company’s trailing 12-month production to more than $20 billion, Cosgrove said.

The transaction could also increase non-QM loans to 15% to 20% of UHM’s overall volume in the first year, he added. AmeriTrust, which positioned itself as a one-stop shop offering agency and government lending products, had leaned heavily into the non-QM sector.

In January, AmeriTrust appointed Shea Pallante as chief revenue officer. A mortgage industry veteran, Pallante joined from non-QM wholesale lender Brokers First Funding. He previously told HousingWire that the firm was expanding into nondelegated correspondent channels while aiming to more than double its monthly origination volume.