WASHINGTON (AP) -- America as a whole has regained all the household wealth it lost to the Great Recession and then some, thanks to higher stock and home prices.

The average household still has a long way to go.

The Federal Reserve says U.S. household wealth jumped $3 trillion to $70.3 trillion in the January-March quarter this year. That tops the previous peak of $68 trillion in the third quarter of 2007, just before the recession began.

The recession cost Americans $15.6 trillion in wealth.

Yet because of inflation and a rising population, the average household has recovered only about 45 percent of the wealth it lost. Affluent households have benefited most from the nation's recovered wealth because most of the gain has come from higher stock prices.