Personal bankruptcies soared last year in Western states hit hardest by the real-estate bust.

In states such as California, Arizona and Nevada, where housing prices soared and then collapsed during the past decade, consumer bankruptcy filings rose roughly twice as much as the national average increase of 32%. Homeowners fell behind on mortgages and could no longer tap into their home equity to pay down other debts.

See the change in personal bankruptcies in 2009, state by state.

"There's a close relationship between high levels of household debt, including mortgage debt, and bankruptcy filings," said Samuel J. Gerdano, executive director of the American Bankruptcy Institute, a research organization made up of attorneys, accountants and other bankruptcy professionals. "That...has been exacerbated by the bursting of the housing bubble."

In Arizona and Nevada, where bankruptcies increased most, filings skyrocketed by 79.6% and 59.5%, respectively. Nearly 6.2% of mortgages in Arizona and 9.4% of mortgages in Nevada were in foreclosure by the end of the third quarter of 2009, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

California saw personal bankruptcy filings rise 58.8% last year. At the end of the third quarter, some 5.8% of loans were in foreclosure there.

Not everyone who goes through foreclosure ends up in bankruptcy and not every bankruptcy is driven by foreclosure. Some states with relatively few foreclosures, such as Utah and Wyoming, had larger increases in personal bankruptcies than Florida, the scene of lots of foreclosures.

Mortgage troubles and job losses were primary contributors to the rise in personal bankruptcies last year, with the impact of both often felt in the same household. Makoto Shuttleworth, a California bankruptcy lawyer, said his clients four years ago were almost exclusively renters. Homeowners in financial trouble could almost always take care of their debts by selling their home or turn its equity into cash via refinancing, he said.

As real-estate prices collapsed, Mr. Shuttleworth saw more homeowners come through his doors, most with steady incomes. Today, with the unemployment rate at 10%, he is seeing more clients whose debts have piled up after losing their jobs.

—Conor Dougherty contributed to this article.

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