My favorite is still Old Mistveil Manor. It has upstairs, downstairs + balcony area, and a decent sized courtyard. Also a stable. It is right outside Riften which has everything you'd need.

Finish the Northern Elsweyr story and get a house for FREE.99
It has 3 unlockables that expand the house.

/script JumpToSpecificHouse("@Starbridge84", 71)

The Exorcised Coven Cottage is available now for a couple more days, and it's close to a wayshrine. It's also got a great space to item count ratio, so you can get really creative with it. No Merchant though.

The Cyrodilic Jungle House is near both a wayshrine and merchants, but is a smaller home. It is a full home though with a yard and a fireplace.

I really like the ones at the Baandari Trading Post and in Rawl'kha

Quondam Indorilia in Mournhold is good. Lots of space indoors, a not too large garden. Good furnishing limit for its size. Magnificent view over the front wall.

Mournhold is a well laid out crafting hub, and Rolis is very easy to get to.

The wayshrine is a few steps further away than other places but, if you choose the right route, there are three chests, a thieves trove and several resource nodes along the way.

That was my first house, and it was great.

Raideen wrote: »

Proudspire Manor in Solitude. Its 6 seconds from the door to the wayshrine, and crafting is right around the corner along with the bank.

I understand the desire to do dailies in Vivec but I would argue that by the time you use the wayshrine, and ride to the crafting areas in Vivec that it would take longer than doing them in solitude even with zoning inside the doors.

The house is 1,050,000 (if you have the appropriate achievement completed) and it has enough space to decorate as a home, along with your own crafting area if you chose to do so. It has a back patio for some outside decor. I think its a nice home.

I second this house for the following reasons:

1. It's gorgeous
2. It's the only house that I haven't maxed out on the furnishing limit (ESO+), and I own most small-large houses. (not including notable ones though, I need to eat )
3. It's gorgeous

My second choice would be the Alinor Crest Townhouse. It's even more beautiful than Proudspire Manor (higher ceilings!). The houses that came out with the chapters have a detail to them that you don't see in the other non-crownstore exclusive houses. And I like my houses with nice arched ceilings. But the layout of the house is less practical than in Proudspire. And to properly furnish it (to my desire) I had to block off a part of the house, so minus points for that.

If 1 mil houses are above your budget, and you are looking for a medium house (and I wish there were more of those!), I would suggest:

Ravenhurst in Rivenspire (my own first medium house!)
or
Exorcised Coven Cottage (if still available)

An honourable mention to Ald Velothi Harbor House for having such a fairytale vibe. Sadly location isn't the best for that one. And the furnishing slots v.s. enormous space can be a bit of an issue.

It depends on the style and if you prefer garden or not, but I agree with players here:
that Khajiit Sleek Creek does have nice surrounding and view and it is next to outlaws exit.
Argonian Snugpod is quite small, but it is near to crafting hall and bank, but those doesn't have jewellery station and wayshrine is quite far.
Breton Ravernhurst is quite near to wayshrine and it does have nice garden, where with a bit of efford you can view surrounding. And it is quite big inside.

I do enjoy Cyrodilic Jungle House because wayshrine, horse feed and merchants are near, and it does have nice view on the city, if you don't have imperial upgrade, Elven Black Vine Villa is still quite near and it does have a small garden.
I don't like that much all the inn rooms, because there is one more loadscreen.
Redguard Twin arches is a bit claustrofobic for me, and it makes me sad that it is one of those smaller houses stripped from nice views by artifical/invisible walls. You could have stairs upstairs, but for some reason it seems like they don't want smaller houses to be that comfortable.

And I would add orcish Mournoth keep - nice views, big garden, 2 floors and wayshire near.

Bigger houses around 1mil golds are sometimes better suited - like in Alinor, Solitude, Leyawin and Rift - that one makes me sad aswell, because it is obvious that all the other smaller nordic houses available are cut off less good looking versions of that house.

I recommend this page:
https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Player_Housing

Snugpod has an amazingly convenient location. It's tiny, with barely enough room to fit all your crafting stations plus your banker and merchant assistants. It's also very cheap.

I'd get that IN ADDITION to whatever other house(s) you choose.

katanagirl1 wrote: »

Mournoth Keep is another one I like, but I get the impression that most players don’t really care for Orcish houses.

I know - I showed it to a person who was looking for something "dwarven" and it didn't work, but I took that for my orcs and with some lightning it doesn't look so damp, I almost started to prefer that over other houses:




And isn't Velothi eRverie in Narsis and Quondam Indorilia almost identical, but 3x more expensive for shortened versions of side rooms? And they are in the same zone - things like that make me wonder if they even do care about statistics about smaller/medium houses, because how many players would buy both houses? Well maybe they wouldn't anyway.

The Gardner house in Wayrest is cool that it is right in a city, but I wouldn't know how to decorate that one.

EDIT:
Ald Velothi in Morrowind is really interesting looking house quite near to wayshrine aswell.
I don't know any good and cozy houses for crowns, because they are for limited time only, just I wouldn't buy lucky cat landing for some reason. But there is nice dwarven frozen lake in Skyrim and a few other "empty places" for some creativity. But it wasn't worthy of the purchase for me. Maybe the upcomming Snowglobe from Eastmarch.

I second many of the already given options:

From smaller ones:
- Snugpod: easy access to horse upgrade right next to it, Rolis Hlaalu, pledges, outlaws refuge (crossing one road with a wandering guard, so be aware though), and a wayshrine. Crafting stations and bank a bit further away in the upper floor of the tree.
- Cyrodilic jungle house: super close to a wayshrine, horse upgrade and some merchants.
- Humblemud: a convenient bank and merchants, but wayshrines are far away.

Medium sized:
- Sleek Creek: outlaws refuge just outside the door (and another entrance goes to the city), relatively close to a wayshrine, a bank and horse upgrade right next to the wayshrine, writ possibility (not the most ideal station locations but the return spot is nicely located).

Bigger ones:
- Alinor crest townhouse: right next to the Alinor crafting area (which competes with Vivec as the best one, imho), near the wayshrine and a bank. The stable is a bit further away so not ideal for characters who are not fully levelled their mounts. Outlaws refuge isn’t the most convenient one either.
- Possibly the Solitude one too, like said, but I haven’t spent too much time there so cannot comment from the experience.

I also suggest using Rimmen inn room (right next to a wayshrine directly outside (no doors)), and Rimmen has good service selection) and Mournhold apartment (relatively near the crafting area and wayshrine, but requires exiting the building) for teleports.

(Snugpod was my first house, and Sleek Creek the second one, so I might be a bit biased.. )

Edit. All can be purchased with in-game gold.

Edit2. So I’d say Sleek Creek has the best balance/mix of all things but the distance to the wayshrine/city can be a bit much if you want super convenient wayshrine access, Snugpod is the best if you do pledges and/or master writs (and want the stable near by), and Alinor is best for crafting, and Cyrodilic jungle house has the best wayshrine access.

I like Velothi Reverei in Narsis. The wayshrine is just outside of the town and there is a merchant less than a stones throw from the front door.