Bankruptcy Filings Are Increasing

I have noticed that I am getting quite a few new bankruptcy appointments now and I am wondering if that means bankruptcy filings will be picking up. So, I went to the stats page to see what the trends look like. I compared the 12 month period ending June 30, 2005 with the 12 month period ending June 30, 2007. The reason I used the June 30, 2005, date is that was before the unnatural surge in filings that we saw before October 17, 2005.

A couple of interesting points: (1) the filings for Sacramento have actually gone up (8051 for 2005 and 8313 for 2007); (2) the filings for Fresno are down significantly (5258 for 2005 and 3379 for 2007). Not including Fresno's filings, the total filings for the district would be equal. This leads us to ask a few questions. Why are the filings for Sacramento back to 2005 levels and the filings for Fresno not? Is this going to be a continuing trend or will it even out eventually?

My opinion is that the rise in filings for Sacramento is an indication that filings will eventually rise in Fresno. Sacramento is bigger than Fresno and is often ahead of Fresno on economic issues. Consequently, I don't think this will be a trend that is continuing and I think it is very likely that Fresno will see the same increase back to 2005 levels of filings within the next 6 months.