In The Bankruptcy Lawyers Blog posting about consumer bankruptcy filings dropping in November, Kevin Craig reported on a new survey by the American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI). In their press release and as discussed by Kevin, ABI reported the good news that consumer bankruptcies were down more than 10% from October – a big change.

ABI felt this is an indication that consumer debt may finally be coming under some control. Or, as ABI Executive Director Samuel Gerdano put it, “The drop in consumer filings from October is perhaps a positive step that the deleveraging of the U.S. consumer may be underway, after years of expanding consumer debt”.

While encouraging, I’m afraid it may be way to early to start calling this a trend or even an indicator. We are talking about only one month here, after all. If December, January, February all have low numbers, then we could call it a good indication. One thing not noted in Craig’s article is that while November’s numbers are 10% less than October, they reflect a 2.2% increase over November of the previous year and that’s not a good trend.

Time will tell.