In the past few years, Florida has seen a great deal of bankruptcy activity. This could be because many individuals during this time have been struggling with debt and financial issues. These struggles may have caused more individuals to seek the protection of bankruptcy.
Now, reports are surfacing that bankruptcy activity is starting to decrease in this area of the state.
For example, a recent article by the Sun Sentinel indicated that bankruptcy filings by residents of Miami-Dade County went down last month. Reportedly, 1,377 bankruptcy filings were made in the county in April. This is around 5 percent fewer filings than were made in the county in March.
South Florida as a whole experienced a similar trend. In April, 2,725 bankruptcies were filed by residents of the region. This is an 8.5 percent reduction from the previous month.
What is causing this reduction in bankruptcy activity? Some reportedly believe that this drop is due to a lag in foreclosure filings in the area. Such a slowdown could temporarily be reducing the financial pressure on some individuals in the region and thus reducing the number of people who feel like they need bankruptcy protection to deal with their financial struggles.
This gives rise to some important questions. What is causing the slowdown in foreclosure filings? How long will this slowdown occur? If foreclosure filings pick back up, will bankruptcy filings also begin to increase again? Is the decrease in bankruptcy activity a sign that the economy is improving or is it just a temporary blip? How these questions are answered could have great impacts on residents of this region.
Source: Sun Sentinel, “Bankruptcies in South Florida drop 8.5 percent in April,” Marcia Heroux Pounds, 3 May 2011
