The number of U.S. homes receiving a foreclosure filing will climb about 20 percent this year, according to RealtyTrac Inc.

“We will peak in foreclosures and probably bottom out in the pricing, and that’s what we need to do in order to begin the recovery,” said RealtyTrac Senior Vice President Rick Sharga in an interview with Bloomberg. “But it’s probably not going to feel good in the process.”

A record 2.87 million properties got notices of default, auction or repossession in 2010, which was a 2 percent increase from a year earlier.

Banks seized more than 1 million homes in 2010, according to the report, up 14 percent from 2009 and the most since the company began compiling reports in 2005. About 3 million homes have been repossessed since 2006, and that number could rise to 6 million by 2013, Sharba said.

A separate report from the Des Moines Area Association of Realtors yesterday said home prices and sales in Des Moines remained stable in of December.

The average sale price decreased slightly from November at $163,002, though  it was higher than December 2009 levels. There were 568 contracts closed in December, up from both previous month and the same month a year ago.