Six out of 10 people own their homes

Some six out of 10 Koreans are now owner-occupiers of their homes as more households bought homes last year and home ownership has been rising for the last two years even though they had to get loans. According to a survey released by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on Tuesday, the proportion of home ownership stood at 57.7 percent last year, up 0.9 percentage points from the previous record in 2016. 

Home ownership among low-income households rose from 46.2 percent to 47.5 percent, and among mid-level income earners from 59.4 percent to 60.2 percent. Kang Mi-na at the Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements said, "Housing supply increased, while more housing loans became available at a time when lease and rent prices soared, resulting in more people opting to buy their own homes." The PIR, an index which shows the amount of time it takes for a person to purchase their own home based on average annual income levels, reached 5.6 times across the nation and 8.8 times for Seoul. That means workers have to save up nine year's worth of their entire pay to buy their own home. The data is based on a survey on 60,000 households conducted from July to September last year.  

Questions: 
1. What is the best option to avail a house? 
2. Do you think it's wise to loan money to buy a house? Why or why not? 
3. How much was the increase of people purchasing their own homes compared to last year? 
4. What's a good investment for you? 
5. Share your thoughts on buying your own house. 

Vocabulary: 
1. household - a house and its occupants regarded as a unit 
2. loan - a thing that is borrowed, especially a sum of money that is expected to be paid back with interest