WASHINGTON – Americans bought new homes last month at the fastest pace in more than two and a half years, adding to other recent evidence that the housing market is steadily recovering.

The Commerce Department says that sales of new homes rose 4.4 percent in November to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 377,000. That's the strongest pace since April 2010, when a homebuyer's tax credit boosted sales.

New home sales have increased 15.3 percent in the past year. Still, the improvement comes from depressed levels. Sales remain below the 700,000 that economists consider healthy.