svn, subversion, repos

[peter@easthope.ca]

http://svnbook.red-bean.com/en/1.7/svn.reposadmin.create.html has 

$ # Create a repository
$ svnadmin create /var/svn/repos
$

In wheezy this fails of course.  Is /var writeable by users in 
any widely used Linux?

peter@dalton:/var$ svnadmin create svn/repos
svnadmin: Repository creation failed
svnadmin: Could not create top-level directory
svnadmin: Can't create directory 'svn/repos': No such file or directory

No mention of repos in /usr/share/doc/subversion/README.Debian.
Nothing obvious in wiki.debian.org.
Nothing in https://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/fhs/fhs-2.3.html.

Is there a "common practise" in Debian?  Write permission on /var? 
repos in /home/user/?

Thanks,                  ... Peter E.

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