The Federal Open Market Committee will announce its next scheduled decision on interest rates on December 18. A rate cut is likely but far from certain.

Kent, the mortgage banker, noted that Fed rate cuts have more impact on credit cards, car loans, and other short-term borrowing than on business and mortgage loans. If mortgage rates stay high, he expects more buyers will ask for adjustable-rate loans, as if betting that rates will fall over the next few years.

The U.S. Federal Reserve is no longer expected to cut interest rates at its December policy meeting, Nomura has said, making it the first global brokerage to signal a pause in the central bank's rate-cutting cycle in the wake of Donald Trump's election win.