Highlands Residential buys The Equitable Mortgage Corp.

Highlands Residential announced Thursday that it has purchased The Equitable Mortgage Corp. in Dublin, Ohio.

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Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The purchase gives one of the lenders that has consistently appeared in The Best Mortgage Companies to Work For rankings access to an operation founded in 1995 that has steadily grown originations over the past three years.

The Ohio mortgage lender’s production volume has increased from $184.19 million in 2023 to $217.2 million last year, according to an analysis of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data by iEmergent. In addition to lending in Central Ohio, the company serves Southwest Florida.

“They’ve run a strong, relationship-driven business, and that’s exactly the kind of foundation we look for,” said Corey Caster, executive vice president and chief production officer at Highlands Residential Mortgage, in a company blog.

Purchase lenders with similar loan sizes

Origination volume at Highlands Residential Mortgage has grown from near $2.04 billion in 2023 to $2.39 billion in 2025, according to iEmergent’s analysis. Its average loan size last year was $340,026. The Equitable Mortgage Corp.’s average loan size in 2025 was $319,412.

Both companies have been strong purchase lenders with iEmergent’s HMDA analysis showing that 82.8% of The Equitable Mortgage Corp.’s loans by count were in that category last year. In comparison, Highlands Residential had a 78.9% purchase share in 2025.

Other merger and acquisition activity

The combination of the two adds to a wave of broader merger and acquisition activity in the industry that includes an ongoing bidding war over RoundPoint Mortgage owner Two Harbors between industry giants CrossCountry and United Wholesale Mortgage.

Other recent deals struck include CrossCountry’s agreement to buy top 35 lender Summit Funding, Freedom Mortgage’s pact to purchase Seneca Mortgage Servicing, LenderMac’s plan to join forces with Utah’s Direct Mortgage and Pennymac’s pending partnership with Cenlar.