diff --git a/IPython/utils/path.py b/IPython/utils/path.py
index 3fc6a6f..555d7dc 100644
--- a/IPython/utils/path.py
+++ b/IPython/utils/path.py
@@ -201,6 +201,9 @@ def get_home_dir(require_writable=False):
         return py3compat.cast_unicode(root, fs_encoding)
     
     homedir = os.path.expanduser('~')
+    # Next line will make things work even when /home/ is a symlink to
+    # /usr/home as it is on FreeBSD, for example
+    homedir = os.path.realpath(homedir)
     
     if not _writable_dir(homedir) and os.name == 'nt':
         # expanduser failed, use the registry to get the 'My Documents' folder.