It has been almost a year now that I and every other columnist have been writing and you have been reading our work on Townhall.com. I feel that I have made some progress in getting borrowers to see the "big picture" and realize that the mortgage you get to help you purchase a house of your own can be more than simply a means to an end. It can be one of the greatest financial tools available to anyone who chooses to use it in that manner.

But really, what does that all mean?

Let's take a look at a brief history of mortgages and home owning. A hundred years ago a small percentage of people owned their own home. During the "Great Depression" a fair percentage of those who owned lost their homes. Fast forward to the end of World War 2

and all the GI's coming home wanted the better life they had fought for and having a house was one of the ways they intended to get their piece of the pie. Projects like

Levit Town began and the great move to home ownership began in earnest. It has never stopped as each year the percentage of Americans who own their own home has increased.

People bought homes with 30 year mortgages and a fair amount of these borrowers stayed put and paid off their homes. Then as my late Aunt Pearl would say " every New Years day

the folks in the east would sit by their T.V. and watch Californians enjoy the Rose Parade and the Rose Bowl game in short sleeves ..... and the rest is history". People came west,

away from the cold and the snow, and the idea of moving to get a better life was born. ( The writer is not suggesting that moving west was tantamount to a better life, just perhaps moving). Continued...