The Commerce Department says builders broke ground on a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 685,000 homes last month, a 9.3 percent jump from October. That's the highest level since April 2010.
Still, that's far below the 1.2 million homes that economists say would be built each year in a healthy housing market.
Building permits, a gauge of future construction, rose by 5.7 percent. The increase was spurred by more apartment permits.
New homes have an outsize impact on the economy. Each home built creates three jobs for a year and $90,000 in taxes, according to the National Association of Home Builders.
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