THE total wealth of American households has recovered from the financial crisis and Great Recession, according to the Federal Reserve Board. But that recovery has not been enough to keep up with inflation, and many Americans, particularly younger adults who took on heavy debt to acquire homes before the housing bubble collapsed, are lagging.

The Fed said last week that household wealth rose by $3 trillion in the first quarter, to $70.3 trillion. It was the first time the total exceeded the $68.1 trillion total posted in the third quarter of 2007, before the recession began, and was the largest quarterly increase since 1999, when the stock market was rising rapidly.

In the first quarter, a third of the gain in wealth came directly from rising values of corporate stocks owned by households. That was a little more than the gain attributed to rising real estate values.

The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis pointed out that there are more households now than there were in 2007, and that there has been inflation as well. As can be seen in an accompanying chart, the average household wealth at the end of the quarter was $613,635, a figure that is 11 percent below the peak of $689,996 (in 2013 dollars) set in the first quarter of 2007.