Lotteries and auctions won't fix the underlying problem of the ward housing system itself. Not to mention SE has provided a way to obtain a house by moving to a lower population server. Housing is not and will never be capable of supporting a large number of players without taking excessive server resources. Server resources are also why the number of outside items will always be smaller than optimal. Due to housing's design if SE were to add enough wards for the high population servers we would have even more wasted open houses on the medium and small population servers. The only true fix is to make a fully instanced housing system that includes the yard in the instance. This would allow for dynamic management of server resources as people entered and left their houses, eliminate the artificial ownership cap imposed by the ward system, allow for more items outside and possibly inside, allow for an upgrade path to larger/smaller dwellings for all players and enhance many other areas of the current system. Nothing says they have to get rid of wards and could still allow players to use them if they are willing to live with the restrictions. I know its expecting a lot but if SE could build a decent instanced system I would leave my ward house for the enhanced quality of life.
