Fridays are bad days for banks, and it’s likely to stay that way for a while.

That’s because Friday seems to be regulators’ favorite day to close banks.

On one June Friday, bank regulators shut down five banks in Georgia, California, and Minnesota. None was very big, but it was the highest number of one-day closures since 1992.

That record stood for a week. Then, regulators closed seven banks—six in Illinois and one in Texas—costing the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation $314.3 million. In all, regulators had closed 74 banks so far this year by August 16.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if we see three, four, five banks fail every Friday for the next few months,” said Tim Yeager, associate professor of finance and the Arkansas Bankers Association Chair at the University of Arkansas. “I think the commercial real estate market is really weak right now…and it’s the next shoe to drop. It wouldn’t surprise me to see a couple hundred fail,” over the next couple of years.

That rate has held true throughout July and August.

For the five banks that shut down that Friday in June, the cost to the FDIC was about $262 million. And while most of the failures have been smaller community banks, some larger regional banks—especially those that waded into both commercial and residential real estate during the boom—could be vulnerable.

On August 14, Colonial Bank of Montgomery, Alabama, became the sixth-largest bank failure in U.S. history. Regulators seized the bank after reaching a deal to sell its 346 branches in five states, deposits, and most assets to BB&T. It is the 74th bank to fail this year—and the largest.

On June 29, Guaranty Bank, the fourth-largest Texas-based bank, filed a document with the Securities Exchange Commission stating that without FDIC assistance and significant private capital it would fail. Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, Spain's second-largest bank, is expected to win the bidding to buy Guaranty today. Federal regulators will seize Guaranty and turn it over to the Spanish bank, as part of BBVA's strategy of expanding in the U.S. Sunbelt.

BankUnited FSB of Coral Gables, Florida, was the largest bank to fail before the August failure of Colonial Bank. BankUnited had $12.8 billion in assets when it failed, and most of its good assets were sold in May to a private equity group led by W.L. Ross & Co. and Carlyle Group.

The overall picture of the industry isn’t pretty. The FDIC’s first-quarter outlook showed three out of five institutions reported lower income and one in five was unprofitable. Higher loan-loss provisions, increased goodwill write-downs, and reduced income from securitization all contributed to the profitability decline.

The banks in the most trouble are the ones with large exposure to boom-and-bust real estate markets like Florida, California, Georgia, and Arizona. Add to those banks in the Midwest, where the suffering manufacturing economy is hitting business-loan portfolios. Illinois now leads the nation for bank closures.

“It’s a combination of how strong the economy is in their area and their concentration in real estate,” Yeager said.