Bankruptcy Filings Jump Signals Trouble

By ELIOT BROWN, Special to the Sun | October 24, 2007

A sharp jump in the number of personal bankruptcy filings could signal growing economic uncertainty for the city.

Crain's New York Business reported yesterday that Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 filings in the five boroughs rose 69%, to 10,541, in the past year.

Economists said such numbers are likely linked to the troubles of the subprime lending industry, which is experiencing an overwhelming level of foreclosures as homebuyers with high-interest loans are unable to make payments.

Taken with a number of other growing financial woes, the likelihood of a local economic slowdown could grow if bankruptcy filings continue to increase.

"New York has not been immune to the housing downturn," an economist at the Fiscal Policy Institute, James Parrott, said, noting that an inability to pay high-interest loans and mortgages often leads people to declare bankruptcy.

With the latest economic indicator casting doubt on the local economy, a downturn could put an end to the era of record city surpluses.

"It seems to suggest that the city's fiscal problems are going to get serious sooner than we had assumed," a professor at Cooper Union, Fred Siegel, said.

"If this continues, it will have a profound effect on a revenue intake, which is already going to be affected by the serious problems" of mortgage foreclosures, he said.