New York, NY – Far more New Yorkers filed for bankruptcy this year.
So far, 17,847 New Yorkers in the five boroughs and eight nearby counties filed for bankruptcy, 47% more than in the same period of 2006.
That's a bit worse than the 42% growth in bankruptcies nationwide, which totaled 721,000.
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A new factor is a law boosting monthly minimums on credit cards, said Michael Siegel, a partner at Manhattan law firm Siegel & Siegel. Payments now have to be large enough to nibble away at principal, not just interest.
That's put many New Yorkers in deep enough trouble that they've had to give up their homes. "That's something I've never seen before in the degree that I'm seeing it now," he said. [nydailynews]
