NH personal bankruptcies increase in October

But fewer businesses file for protection

The year isn’t over yet, but the day after Halloween it looks like the number of bankruptcies, which plummeted after the recession, might be creeping up again.

Nothing to be scared of yet, but some 147 households and businesses filed for bankruptcy in October, which was more than last October, which was more than the October before that.

It was also 16 more than the number who filed in September, though below the annual average of 153 a month. Yet that’s three more than the 150 per month who filed last year.

In 2016, personal bankruptcy filings year-to-date decreased by 9 percent, ending a five-year trend of a double-digit decline in filings since the end of the recession. If this trend holds until January, it will be the first time bankruptcies have increased up since 2010.

But here is the good news. Back in 2010, 429 were filed for bankruptcy in October.

There also were fewer business bankruptcies in October. There were six filings in October, compared to 11 in September, and five were by households that filed due to business-related debt.

That left only one business entity that filed for bankruptcy in October:

 • DRB Electric Inc., Merrimack, filed Oct. 5, Chapter 7. Assets: $199,857. Liabilities: $1,243,973.