Consumer bankruptcies on the rise

Filings last month increase 28 percent over last November - a sign of the economic impact of the nation's mortgage woes.

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- A surge in bankruptcies last month may be a signal that the fallout from the nation's mortgage crisis is spreading, an expert said Wednesday.

"High household debt and the fallout from rising mortgage costs could contribute to a surge in bankruptcies in 2008," Samuel Gerdano, executive director of the American Bankruptcy Institute, said in a statement.

The American Bankruptcy Institute released data Wednesday along with the National Bankruptcy Research Center.

The number of households filing for bankruptcy in November increased to 28 percent over the same month last year.

However, the number of consumer bankruptcies in November actually decreased by 5.5% from October.

In November, 39.5 percent of the 71,799 consumer bankruptcy filings were made under federal Chapter 13, which protects bankrupt individuals from losing their homes in foreclosure. To top of page

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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.