Spurred by the down cycle in the mortgage business, a downturn in the economy (Recession? what recession? ) or else just credit providers providing more credit than should be given, we have seen a recent rise in bankruptcy filings both in Illinois and throughout the country. I came across this article from the AP which spells out the numbers for you.
Bankruptcy Filings Up 15 Percent in Feb.
© 2008 The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — U.S. personal bankruptcy filings rose last month to the highest monthly level since Congress passed a sweeping bankruptcy overhaul that made filing more difficult.
Consumers made more than 76,000 personal bankruptcy filings in February.
That was up more than 10,000, or 15.2 percent, from 66,000 a month earlier and up from more than 55,000 in February 2007, according to data collected by the National Bankruptcy Research Center and published by the American Bankruptcy Institute, a research group in Alexandria, Va.
It was the highest monthly figure since October 2005, when bankruptcy filings surged to nearly 620,000 before a new law made it more difficult for consumers to seek bankruptcy-court protection from creditors.
Last year, personal bankruptcy filings jumped 40 percent to more than 800,000 due to rising mortgage payments, job losses and other financial pressures, after a sharp decline a year earlier.
The trend may worsen this year as consumers' high debt loads are made worse by mortgages resetting at higher rates. The spike "forecasts the start of more to come," Samuel J. Gerdano, executive director of the bankruptcy institute, said in a statement.
