Home prices are nearly back to where they were before the crash. In some places, home prices are above where they were at the peak of the national boom.

Yet, the impact of rising home prices has not had the economic effect that economists expected.

The Wall Street Journal addresses the issue in Why the Housing Rebound Hasn't Lifted the U.S. Economy Much.

I think the journal misses the reasons by a mile, as does Moody's Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi. Let's take a look.

Home equity has roughly doubled to $12.1 trillion since house prices hit bottom in 2011, according to the Federal Reserve. As a result, a key gauge of housing wealth—homeowners' equity as a share of real-estate values—is nearing the point seen a decade ago, before the downturn.