US existing-home sales rose in April to the fastest pace in nearly three and a half years but were held back by tight inventory and credit, the National Association of Realtors said Wednesday.

Sales rose 0.6 percent from March to an annual rate of 4.97 million units, NAR said in a statement

That was the highest sales rate since November 2009 when the pace hit 5.44 million units, helped by the federal government's home buyer tax credit to kick-start the housing recovery, the industry group said.

The March pace was revised up to 4.94 million units annually, from an estimate of 4.92 million.

The report underscored resilience in the housing market recovery that has been a key support for growth in the economy.

On a 12-month basis, existing-home sales were up 9.7 percent. Sales prices rose for the 14th straight month of year-on-year gains, and were up 11.0 percent from April 2012.

"The robust housing market recovery is occurring in spite of tight access to credit and limited inventory. Without these frictions, existing-home sales easily would be well above the five-million unit pace," Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said in the statement.

"Buyer traffic is 31 percent stronger than a year ago, but sales are running only about 10 percent higher. It's become quite clear that the only way to tame price growth to a manageable, healthy pace is higher levels of new home construction."