It was a light day — less than 100 foreclosures.

Last month, Doug Hardegree helped the McCalla Raymer LLC legal firm foreclose on 327 properties. Tuesday on the courthouse steps in Lawrenceville, there were only 97, he said.

State law calls for foreclosure auctions to be held at county courthouses on the first Tuesday of each month. In recent months, the crowds of auctioneers, lawyers, bankers and speculators have crowded the concrete path in front of the doors of the Gwinnett Justice and Administration Center in Lawrenceville.

Tuesday seemed decidedly less exciting. Fewer people milled about and fewer homes up for auction were posted on the black-tinted windows of the building.

It's not that the tide of foreclosures has truly ebbed. A legal change forced lenders to file some paperwork differently before foreclosing. When a lender sells a loan to another institution, the change must be recorded at the courthouse before a foreclosure can happen, Hardegree said.

The change will push many of the June foreclosures into later months, he said.

"Next month will be horrendous," Hardegree said. "And the month after that will be worse."

Still, a few striking foreclosures remained to illustrate the depth of the problem in Gwinnett's housing market Tuesday. Builders gave up dozens of lots in new subdivisions near Grayson.

Lowell Pratt Residential LLC lost to foreclosure 35 plots of land in the Wilshire Manor subdivision near Grayson. The foreclosure represented an $8.76 million loss for the Norcross-bassed builder. Twenty lots and a handful of homes in the Georgetown Commons subdivision also went up for auction Tuesday. Homes had been listed for more than $600,000 in the Grayson-area development. About $10.5 million in residential property was lost to foreclosure Tuesday at Georgetown Commons.