Metro Phoenix bankruptcy filings fall at fast clip

Plenty of Arizonans continue to struggle financially, but their stress isn’t showing up in bankruptcy filings: The number of Valley residents seeking protection in February fell at the fastest pace in nearly 6 1/2 years. Throughout metro Phoenix, 1,059 individuals and businesses started bankruptcies last month, down nearly 35 percent from February 2012, according to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Phoenix. Filings have dropped for the past 25 months when compared with the same month in the previous year. The cyclical peak of 3,063 bankruptcies was reached in March 2010. The most recent results showed the best rate of improvement since October 2006 — one year after the numbers were distorted by a change in the law making it less advantageous to file. Filings fell nearly 35 percent throughout Arizona, mirroring the trend in metro Phoenix. Some 1,412 individuals and businesses statewide filed in February, down from 2,160 in February 2012. In general, consumer finances have been improving, driven by higher job growth and a generally declining unemployment rate and helped by rising housing prices, a surging stock market and other factors. Still, plenty of individuals continue to struggle. A reader financial call-in session hosted last week by The Arizona Republic featured dozens of questions about bankruptcy, debt or credit problems. Most were answered by Phoenix bankruptcy attorneys Diane Drain, who heads her own firm, and Cindy Greene of law firm Carmichael & Powell. Drain said she senses that a lot of today’s filers are people who typically had above-average incomes. “They were liquidating other assets to pay their bills,” she said, adding that some of those money sources have been tapped out. By contrast, most of the financially stressed people in middle-income ranges have already sought bankruptcy help, she said, while poorer individuals lack the money to pay attorney fees, don’t have enough assets to protect or aren’t filing for other reasons. Nationally, bankruptcy filings of 82,285 were down 21 percent from 104,537 in February 2012, according to Epiq Systems. Read the rest at http://www.azcentral.com/business/news/articles/20130314metro-phoenix-bankruptcy-filings-fall-at-fast-clip.html