Bankruptcy filings in the Tampa-Fort Myers district on pace to set a record

Even though the housing market shows faint glimmers of recovery, tough times are by no means over — bankruptcy filings in the Tampa-Fort Myers district are pouring in at a near-record pace. On Thursday, court clerks logged in the 11,000th case filed since Jan. 1 — a Palm Harbor cleaner who makes $378 a month and has $228,000 in debts, mostly on credit cards. If filings continue at the same rate, the total for 2009 will exceed 27,000, more than at any time except in an unusual year when debtors rushed to file ahead of a new law that made it harder to declare bankruptcy.

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