A spot of good news on the finance front.
Personal bankruptcy filings are down in Minnesota and across the nation.
Through May, 8,740 households filed for bankruptcy in Minnesota, a 9 percent drop from the 9,596 who filed in the first five months of 2010.
Still, filings are higher than they were during the 2008-09 recession. But that's to be expected.
Last year, when I spoke with Nancy Dreher, chief judge of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Minnesota District, for a story about bankruptcies filings climbing toward record levels, she told me that bankruptcies continue to climb after recessionary periods because many people put off filing until the credit cards are in collections and the retirement money is spent. In other words, bankruptcies lag periods of economic struggle as people hold on to the hope that things will turn around and bankruptcy won't be needed.
In 2010, 22,070 Minnesota households filed for bankruptcy, the second highest number on record. The record-holding year is still 2005, with 25,635 personal bankruptcy filings. That's when struggling borrowers rushed to courts nationwide before a new bankruptcy law went into effect that fall. The reform was expected to make it much harder to discharge debts.
While most people can still qualify for Chapter 7 personal bankruptcy, the fees for doing so have increased, making the cost of filing the biggest hurdle for many families.
