Consumer bankruptcies fell 18% nationwide in July compared with July 2010, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute, which pulls the data from the National Bankruptcy Research Center.
The overall consumer filing total for July totaled 113,470, down from 137,698 consumer filings recorded in the year-ago period. It was the seventh straight month of fewer bankruptcies in 2011 compared with last year.
"The continued decline in consumer bankruptcies in tandem with a sluggish economy is a reflection of the deleveraging of household debts and tightening of consumer credit over the past year," according to Samuel J. Gerdano, ABI's Executive Director. "Should these trends persist, we expect to see fewer consumer bankruptcies in 2011 than were filed in 2010."
The July filings also represented a 5% decrease from the June 2011 consumer bankruptcy total of 119,768 filings. The percentage of Chapter 13 filings for July was 29%, a 1% increase from June.
