The failure of Silicon Valley Bank and emergency measures to shore up the wider banking system drove a rush by investors to the safety of government bonds, leading to a drop in yields on Treasury notes.
As a result, the average rate on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages dropped by 0.23 percentage points to 6.48% for the week ended March 17 from 6.71% the previous week, marking the largest weekly drop since mid-November.
A jump in loan application volumes followed, with applications for both new purchases and refinancing of existing loans hitting a six-week high.
The Telegraph reports that mortgage interest payments have soared by three times what some homeowners were originally paying, resulting in an increase in monthly payments by over £500.
Individuals who fixed their mortgage rates before the COVID-19 pandemic are now discovering how great a deal they previously had.
A homeowner in particular, Sarah Marshall, had a 1.5% rate on her five-year fixed mortgage but now, after remortgaging her home, is paying a 4.4% interest rate.
The difference in rates and payments, though, may depend on location as The Telegraph recounts Marshall's three-bed detached house in Easton, Nottingham, paying £300,000, while the Mortgage Bankers Association's observations refer only to the US mortgage market.
The two articles illustrate the impact of recent financial events on mortgage rates and monthly payments, from different perspectives.
While The Telegraph highlights how homeowners' payments have surged in the pandemic era, the Mortgage Bankers Association describes how the failure of a bank and measures to support the banking system have a silver lining of lower mortgage rates for American home buyers.