Hawaii bankruptcies rose 10.2% in 2018 to end streak

Hawaii’s slowing growth appears to be leading to more bankruptcy filings.

The state’s streak of seven straight years of declining bankruptcies ended in 2018 as the number jumped 10.2 percent to 1,490, its highest level in three years, according to data released last week by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court. The last time there were more filings was in 2015 when there were 1,569 cases.

“(The increase) indicates that the state economy has already been slowing down in 2018, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis,” said Eugene Tian, chief economist for the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. “Hawaii’s real GDP (inflation-adjusted gross domestic product) growth was only 0.5 percent during the first half of 2018, which is significantly lower than the 1.8 percent annual growth experienced in the past 20 years.”

Tian said the economic slowdown may prompt more bankruptcy filings this year than in 2018.

“According to the DBEDT projection, Hawaii’s economy is going to be growing at a slower pace at 1.2 percent in 2019,” he said.

Honolulu bankruptcy attorney Greg Dunn said cases handled by his office jumped 64 percent in 2018 over the previous year and were accelerating going into the end of last year.

“The last six months of 2018 I saw a tremendous increase from the first six months of 2018,” he said. “If the last six months of 2018 are a new trend, then I’m thinking that in 2019 you’ll probably see more bankruptcies.”

Dunn attributed the increase in 2018 to people overspending and layoffs.

“When people have more money they overspend, and people still get laid off even in a better economy,” he said.

There were 1,006 Chapter 7 liquidation filings last year, an increase of 10.2 percent from 913 in 2017. Chapter 7 is the most common type of bankruptcy.

Chapter 13 filings, which allow individuals with regular sources of income to set up plans to make installment payments to creditors over three to five years, rose 12.6 percent to 481 from 427.

There were only three Chapter 11 cases during the year compared with 11 in the year-earlier period. Chapter 11 filings typically involve business reorganization.

There were no Chapter 12 filings for family farm reorganizations compared with one a year earlier.

In December, bankruptcies decreased 5.6 percent (to 101 from 107) to end a streak of four straight months that filings were either flat or up.

During the final month of the year, filings dropped by more than half in Maui County to 12 from 25 in the year-earlier period. Bankruptcies increased in the other three counties as Honolulu County filings rose to 75 from 70, Hawaii County filings inched up to 11 from 10 and Kauai County filings ticked up to three from two.