National Bankruptcy Research Center November 2009 Bankruptcy Filings Report
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Bankruptcy filings in November 2009 topped 110,000, the ninth straight month they surpassed 100,000, and 12% more than last November’s total. With the November filings, the year-to-date total for 2009 is above 1.3 million, a 32% increase over filings for the first eleven months of 2008. Indeed, 2009 filings have now passed the year-to-date total for any previous year since the 2005 bankruptcy reform bill. The increase includes a marked upturn in the last year in Chapter 7 (liquidation) filings, which have increased by more than 42% as compared to this time last year, where Chapter 13 (rehabilitation) filings have increased by only 12%. The steadily declining share of Chapter 13 filings (less than 30% of 2009 filings to date) contrasts with the strong push by Congress in its 2005 bankruptcy legislation to encourage bankrupts to choose Chapter 13 rather than Chapter 7.
Nationwide, the filings to date amount to almost 11,500 filings per million households. The states with the highest household-adjusted filing rates are Nevada (two-and-half times the national average), followed by Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, and Indiana (with household-adjusted filing rates more than one and a half times the national average). More than one out of every six bankruptcy filings this year has occurred in one of those States, even though those States include only one in twelve American households. The lowest filing rates were in Alaska (less than a third of the national average), followed by the District of Columbia, North Dakota, South Carolina, and South Dakota (all less than half the national average).
“The proportion of bankruptcies filed jointly has also increased from 30% to 36% over the past year, as more families seek relief through bankruptcy at the national, regional, and local level”, remarked Chris Lundquist, President of LCI
The States with the biggest increase in filings since 2008 were Arizona (an 80% jump) followed by Nevada, California, Wyoming, and Utah (all with increases of about 60%). Although 2009 filings are higher than 2008 filings in all States, several States have experienced comparatively modest increases. The lowest increases (all about 12-15%) are in Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Alaska, Tennessee, and South Carolina.
At the county level, the counties with the highest filing rates (adjusting for households located in the county) were concentrated in Georgia. Seven of the ten counties with the highest filing rates were in Georgia, with the highest rate in the county occurring in Shelby County, Tennessee (Memphis), with a filing rate almost three times the national average. The second and third highest filing rates were in two counties east of Atlanta (Newton and Barrow), both with filing rates more than two and a half-times the national average.
On a national basis, 28% of all filings to date were under Chapter 13, the procedure most directly related to home-mortgage distress. Again, there was a substantial variation among the States on the prevalence of bankrupts seeking Chapter 13 relief. The States with the highest share of Chapter 13 filings (50% or more in each case) were concentrated in the South: Louisiana, Alabama, South Carolina, and Tennessee. At the other end of the spectrum were States with relatively low Chapter 13 shares (all less than 10%). The three lowest were New Mexico, Iowa, and West Virginia, all with less than 10% of their filings under Chapter 13.
This analysis was performed on data collected by the National Bankruptcy Research Center (NBKRC) by NBKRC contributor Professor Ronald Mann of the Columbia Law School.
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