Mortgage Rates Fluctuate Amidst Market Turmoil.

The failure of Silicon Valley Bank and emergency measures taken to shore up the wider banking system drove a mad dash by investors to the safety of government bonds, resulting in a drop in yields on the Treasury notes that act as benchmarks for home loans. This pushed the average rate on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages down by 0.23 percentage point to 6.48% for the week ended March 17 from 6.71% the week before, the largest weekly drop since mid-November. The lower rates drove a jump in loan application volumes, with applications for both new purchases and refinancing of existing loans hitting a six-week high.