Thornburg Mortgage has laid off 29 members of its sales and support staff in its home-lending division, following a year of what a statement from the firm said was "unprecedented turmoil in the mortgage banking and credit markets."

Thornburg president and chief executive officer Larry Goldstone said, "With a finance and credit market that has seen major financial institutions collapsing over the last few weeks, Thornburg Mortgage has had to meet a series of difficult challenges that few could have predicted."

Thornburg Mortgage spokeswoman Suzanne O'Leary Lopez said Tuesday's layoff was the first the company has ever had.

A Thornburg employee who called The New Mexican Tuesday morning said the layoffs came with no notice to staffers at the company. "There are a bunch of people here crying and packing their things," said the employee, who asked not to be identified.

Of the 29 positions eliminated, about half were in Santa Fe and the rest were around the country, O'Leary Lopez said. The company now employs 156 people in Santa Fe and elsewhere.

Thornburg Mortgage stopped funding mortgages in the second quarter of 2008.

Thornburg is in the midst of a tender offer to buy back its own preferred shares as part of deal it made with lenders to bail the company out.

The company specializes in jumbo mortgages (those for $417,000 or more) for prime and superprime borrowers.

On Sept. 23, Thornburg Mortgage reaffirmed approval of a one-for-10 reverse split of the company's common stock, which became effective Monday.

The stock split was necessary because the New York Stock Exchange will delist a company if the company's shares fall below $1 for more than 30 consecutive trading days.

As a result of the split, Thornburg Mortgage common shareholders were entitled to receive one common share for every 10 pre-existing shares owned.

Thornburg Mortgage's common stock closed Tuesday at $1.75, up 60 cents, or 52.17 percent for the day. In after-hours trading, the stock lost 6 cents and fell to $1.69.

Volume on Tuesday was 3.3 million shares. Average volume is a little over 1 million shares.

Contact Bob Quick at 986-3011 or bobquick@sfnewmexican.com.