Union Home Mortgage has completed its acquisition of AmeriTrust Mortgage, closing the deal in just 45 days. According to HousingWire, this was purely an asset purchase with no servicing portfolio changing hands, and the financial details were kept confidential. UHM's leadership sees this move as a smart strategic play in a challenging lending environment where margins are thin and the industry has more capacity than it needs.
The deal brings approximately 200 AmeriTrust employees into the UHM fold, though some overlap in roles will result in about 20 to 25 redundancies. AmeriTrust operated as a retail lender across five branches with a moderate loan officer base before the acquisition. The company had generated around $913 million in mortgage production last year, with a meaningful piece of that coming through wholesale channels.
What really caught my attention is the non-QM angle. AmeriTrust has positioned itself as a specialist in nonqualified mortgages, and UHM is expecting this acquisition could push non-QM loans to represent 15 to 20 percent of its overall business volume within the first year. For a lender already producing over $11 billion annually, that's a meaningful expansion into a niche product segment that appeals to borrowers who don't fit traditional lending boxes.
This deal is part of a larger consolidation trend UHM has been pursuing. The company has signaled serious appetite for acquisitions and has already added other lenders to its portfolio. With this AmeriTrust transaction, UHM's annual production could exceed $20 billion, which positions them solidly in the upper ranks of the mortgage banking industry.
What I am seeing locally here in the Bay Area and across the East Bay is that larger lenders continue to gobble up smaller shops, especially those with specialized expertise. As a broker, I watch these moves carefully because it affects which lenders I can partner with and what loan products become more readily available to my clients. UHM's push into non-QM could mean more options for self-employed professionals and business owners in our region who struggle with traditional bank documentation.
