Bankruptcy filings up 11 percent from July to August, contrary to the usual trend

According to federal bankruptcy court records, there were 1,106 bankruptcy filings in Colorado during August. That's up 11 percent from July's total of 990, and it's down 8.5 percent from August 2015's total of 1,208.

Overall, the general trend has been downward since 2010, as we can see in the first graph:

An unusual thing happened in August, though: bankruptcy filings increased from July to August. Since 2007, this only happened once before, during 2011.  In other words, bankruptcies usually fall during this period, but from July to August of this year, bankruptcies rose at the highest rate experience since 2006:

It remains to be seen whether or not this signals a change in the downward trend we've seen seeing for the past six years.

There have been other indicators, though, that this year bankruptcy activity has been leveling off, rather than continuing the sharp down ward trend that we saw from about 2012 to 2015. The next graph shows how year-over-year changes in bankruptcy activity has been rather sizable with year-over-year declines of 20 percent or more being rather common. So far, this year, the degree to which filings have been declining become smaller compared to 2015. From August 2015 to August 2016, bankruptcies fell 8.5 percent. From August 2014 to August 2015, bankruptcies fell 16.9 percent.

Are bankruptcies surging in Colorado? At this time, there's not enough or an established trend to say this, although the most recent data may suggest that the most robust portion of the current expansion may be softening. 

Bankruptcy cases hit nine-year low in Colorado in December 2015

According to the US Bankruptcy court in Colorado, Bankruptcy filings in Colorado fell to a nine-year low in December 2015,  the lowest level recorded since January of 2007. During December 2015 there were 844 bankruptcy filings in Colorado.  During January 2007, there were 807.

Bankruptcies in Colorado have been generally declining since 2010:

The year-over-year declines have ranged from negative 10 percent to negative 20 percent in most months. Over the past year, changes have remained within this range suggesting little change to the current trend at the moment. during December 2015, bankruptcy filings were down 23.8 percent from December 2014.

It is also notable that December 2015 showed the lowest December total in ten years, coming in below December 2006's total of 874:

With such low interest rates in recent years, and thus, debt so very cheap, it has been easier for both businesses and consumers to stay ahead on their debt service and avoid bankruptcy. debt so very cheap.  We see t his reflected here, and, of course, continued improvement in the job market has helped keep bankruptcies down as well.