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End of year numbers indicate that the nation’s residential market is finishing the year on an upswing.

Homebuilding has ramped up 22 percent since this time last year, and is at its highest level in nearly four years, according to data released recently by the U.S. Commerce Department.

The increase is a result of an improved market; last month, nationwide home sales rose 4.4 percent from October, according to the agency. It was the largest monthly sales increase since April 2010.

Home prices are rising as well. The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller national home price index, a leading indicator of the U.S. residential housing market’s health, increased 4.3 percent in October from a year earlier.

Of course, this is relative to the recession: Home sales remain below the 700,000 mark, which economists consider healthy. However, many local homebuilders consider the increases an encouraging sign.

鈥淲e’re still not making money from it, but things have improved,鈥� said Jim Chapman, president of Legend Homes, which has seen a 50 percent production increase this year.

Homebuilding is the only type of construction expected to experience significant gains in 2013, according to data released by the Associated General Contractors of America in early November.