WATERLOO - Lender GMAC is cutting back, and it's going to cost 27 employees in Cedar Falls and Waterloo their jobs.

GMAC, which announced Wednesday it was cutting 3,000 workers - about 25 percent of its work force - from its Minneapolis-based Residential Capital LLC lending arm, also known as ResCap, by the end of September.

As many as 2,000 employees in other GMAC branches will lose their jobs by the end of the year, Jeannine Bruin, a company spokeswoman.

GMAC is shuttering its two local retail operations - one in Cedar Falls and another in Waterloo - at the end of business today, Bruin said.

The Waterloo mortgage service center, which is the company's largest presence in Iowa, also will cut 16 positions from its current roster of 657 by the end of the month, Bruin said.

Eleven more GMAC employees in Iowa, in Urbandale and Anamosa, also will be out of work, as retail stores in those communities are shuttered, Bruin said.

"We have a large servicing presence in Waterloo, and that is ResCap's' core function, along with lending through our direct channels and call centers," Bruin said. "We'll still have a heavy presence in Iowa."

She said the cuts are a result of slumping residential sales across the U.S. and in international markets.

"It's unfortunate that we're going through this, and it impacts so many people," she said. "We wouldn't be taking these actions (otherwise)."

The wave of cutbacks is the second this year at ResCap, which trimmed 2,000 earlier.

ResCap said it would incur restructuring charges between $90 million and $110 million. That includes severance costs of $55 million to $65 million and costs for closing facilities of $35 million to $45 million. The company will take most of those charges in the fourth quarter, which ends Dec. 31.

Bruin said the changes make ResCap more nimble and less susceptible to changes in the loan market.

"We're talking about focusing on those business channels where you have the best chance for success," she said. "We'll staff as appropriate for that business. We're really talking about originating loans through call centers and the internet. We'll staff as appropriate for those channels. If there's a posted opportunity in the servicing group. we'll fill those opportunities."

Bob Reisinger, executive director of the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Board of Realtors, said the cutbacks likely would have little, if any, effect on the local housing market.

"I doubt it would affect it a whole lot," he said. "I go back into the '70s and '80s, when we only had savings and loans and local banks that we had for financing real estate. In today's market, not only do we have those, but we've got the credit unions and mortgage bankers in it now. Anybody leaving the market, whatever their business was, somebody would pick it up."

Contact Jim Offner at (319) 291-1598 or jim.offner@wcfcourier.com.