Hawaii bankruptcies are heading back down.

Following a blip up in August, the number of cases filed last month dropped 11.1 percent from a year ago, according to data released Monday by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Hawaii. The 112 cases last month were down from 126 in the year-earlier period and marked the fewest number of filings for any September since 104 were filed in 2007.

“It’s the same story,” Honolulu bankruptcy attorney Blake Goodman said about the downward trend. “Unemployment is very low, and it still seems that property appreciations in Hawaii are keeping people out of foreclosure because they can often times re-fi their properties.”

Statewide filings have been flat or down from the year-earlier period for 63 of the past 66 months. Besides the strong housing market, the state economy has been bolstered by a booming construction sector and continued growth in the tourism industry. August bucked the downward trend in bankruptcies with four more filed than in August 2015.

For the first nine months of this year, bankruptcies were down 12.3 percent from the year-earlier period. At that pace the state will finish the year with 1,393 bankruptcies. That would be the lowest total since 1,381 were filed in 2007.

Goodman said, excluding the effect of the federal bankruptcy law change in 2005, bankruptcy filings could end 2016 at their lowest level in about 25 years. There were 1,101 bankruptcy cases in 1991, 1,431 in 1992 and 1,497 in 1993.

In October 2005, the bankruptcy law was changed to make it more difficult and more costly to file for bankruptcy. Debtors rushed to file to beat the implementation of that new law and the number of filings in 2005 — most of them filed in the first nine months of the year — swelled to 4,481. Consequently, bankruptcy filings plunged in 2006 to just 955 before beginning to rise again.

“There was an artificial low right after the law change,” Goodman said. “It took several years for the pool of bankruptcy debtors to be replenished because so many of them had filed in anticipation of negative consequences affecting them from the new law. In 2005, the bankruptcy filings were off the Richter scale.”

Goodman said he’s surprised that the housing boom in Kakaako hasn’t pushed more condominium owners into bankruptcy.

“I kind of expected that the completion of a lot of these condo units, and putting a lot of units on the market at the same time, would have caused a glut and a downturn in condo values,” he said. “That hasn’t seemed to have kicked in yet and maybe there’s an argument that it won’t kick in. It’s very odd that there are so many units put on the market in the last 18 months and condo prices seem to be holding, but interest rates are holding low and giving everyone access to inexpensive financing and boosting the real estate market.”

Among the different chapters of bankruptcies, Chapter 7 liquidation — the most common type of bankruptcy — fell 9.5 percent last month to 76 from 84.

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, declined 17.1 percent to 41 from 34.

There were two Chapter 11 cases last month — both involving a Kona coffee farm — compared with one in the same month a year ago. Chapter 11 bankruptcies typically involve business reorganization.

The two involuntary Chapter 11 cases involved Mountain Thunder Coffee Plantation International Inc. and sister company Naturescape Holding Group International Inc. Lender GemCap Lending I LLC and a few other creditors petitioned Bankruptcy Court to force Mountain Thunder and Naturescape into bankruptcy so that business assets could be controlled by a court-appointed trustee and then sold to pay GemCap. A hearing to determine whether Mountain Thunder and Naturescape should be in bankruptcy is scheduled for Oct. 27.

Across the state, the number of filings decreased last month in three of the four major counties. Bankruptcies in Honolulu County slipped to 73 from 77, fell in Hawaii County to 10 from 13, and declined in Maui County to 22 from 32. In Kauai County, filings rose to seven from four.