I have always loved housing in games, as far back as my two-story sandstone in Ultima Online.
The one thing I always hated was having to pay maintenance to keep a house. I hated it in UO. I hated it in Asheron's Call (where my villa had an amazing view), and I hated it in Lord of the Rings Online. One busy month of work. One long vacation. One lapse in memory. That was all it would take to lose a house I had worked hard to get, and worked even harder to configure and decorate.
I'm not thrilled with the prices of some of the houses, but I am extremely grateful to ZOS that there's no chance of us ever losing our in-game homes. Thank you, dev's, for making that call. It significantly impacted my willingness to invest time and in-game resources in my house.