the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation continues to take over property holdings of failed lending agencies, the regulator has already sold more real estate than it has in any year since 1994. In the first 9 months of this year, the FDIC made more than $725 million from the sale of property, compared to $1.15 billion for the entire year of 1994. In all, the agency has sold 1,705 properties, the most since 1996, when they sold 2,046 properties.

The collapse of nearly 150 lenders in the last three years has availed investors the opportunity to purchase a variety of land from the FDIC. The regulator is also unloading hundreds of millions in loans from failed banks. More than 900 of the properties sold by the FDIC have been in Georgia, by far the most of any state. Georgia has also led the nation in bank failures, with 27 institutions collapsing. Minnesota had the second most properties sold by the FDIC with 115 and California was third with 113.
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