Allot of people seemed to of missed this:

[Mihana]

Here's the kicker in that note:

As stated in the patch notes for Patch 2.38, the plots of land available for purchase in the housing areas will be the same for both Free Company and individual buyers. The introduction of housing plots in the future will also follow this structure.

Personal and Free Company housing will share the SAME plots, future wards will follow the SAME structure. The SAME pricing if this follows true then. People are upset because they've been lied to here. And no matter HOW many wards they release there is and always will be a shortage on areas for housing.

In the future, we plan to be able to double the total land for all existing housing wards, including the two new wards, in Patch 2.4 with the system changes that we are currently working on.
(Basically, the number of wards available now will be doubled in Patch 2.4).

This means nothing, sorry but it doesn't. Come patch 2.4 even if the wards are doubled there's still the high cost, there's still the limited space. People who want their own home will still need to compete with Free Companies who want one. The current structure they're going with is the wrong answer, yet clearly they're going this way regardless. All they're going to be doing is trying to rework the system so they can squeeze in a few more wards, a few more areas. Essentially it's the band-aid technique all over again.

I don't mean to belittle the guy here, because I still think Yoshi-P is a good man, but has he really played an MMO before as he so claims? Many of his and his team's design choices in the last year have me starting to question if he was the right guy to bring this game back to life. He's done a fantastic job I won't question that but maybe they need someone else at the helm to help him out... Not replace him, but help him steer this thing.

[Darki]

Here's the kicker in that note:

As stated in the patch notes for Patch 2.38, the plots of land available for purchase in the housing areas will be the same for both Free Company and individual buyers. The introduction of housing plots in the future will also follow this structure.

Personal and Free Company housing will share the SAME plots, future wards will follow the SAME structure. The SAME pricing if this follows true then. People are upset because they've been lied to here. And no matter HOW many wards they release there is and always will be a shortage on areas for housing.

Hmm. I see your point. The devs talked about an "automatic vacating" function that put houses back on the market after being untouched for a while but then scraped the idea. Maybe they should give it a 2nd look?

[Mihana]

Hmm. I see your point. The devs talked about an "automatic vacating" function that put houses back on the market after being untouched for a while but then scraped the idea. Maybe they should give it a 2nd look?

No, just... No.

Imagine this:

You spend a lot of gil buying a plot of land, a home. You're happy. Suddenly, god forbid, something serious happens in your life and you have to take time away from the game. You lose your job. A family member dies. You need to move. Whatever the case. Now how fair is it that because of reasons beyond your control you cannot afford to play for an extended period of time that you now lose that home? Although I'm against it for FC housing it make more sense in that kind of scenario because usually a FC is made up of more than two people. If everyone cannot afford to take just a moment to visit their FC home it makes a little more sense that they lose it in this case. I want to stress again, I'm against this idea but it's something I can understand. Applying that to personal housing just invites a world of aggravation.

The bottom line is this, FC housing and personal housing should be two SEPARATE entities and not classified as the same thing.

While I cannot speak for every player I have a strong suspicion a lot will agree that personal housing should be treated separate, perhaps as I even mentioned in another thread, instanced over being shoved into the same wards as FC ones. I'd rather wait a few more months and get something better than be shoved into a every-person-for-themselves-free-for-all to try and snag up that choice plot of land or risk losing the chance for the next several months whenever they feel it's appropriate to add in another few wards to fight over.

[Darki]

No, just... No.

Imagine this:

You spend a lot of gil buying a plot of land, a home. You're happy. Suddenly, god forbid, something serious happens in your life and you have to take time away from the game. You lose your job. A family member dies. You need to move. Whatever the case. Now how fair is it that because of reasons beyond your control you cannot afford to play for an extended period of time that you now lose that home? Although I'm against it for FC housing it make more sense in that kind of scenario because usually a FC is made up of more than two people. If everyone cannot afford to take just a moment to visit their FC home it makes a little more sense that they lose it in this case. I want to stress again, I'm against this idea but it's something I can understand. Applying that to personal housing just invites a world of aggravation.

Oh I thought of that. In fact the way my life is, something like that would very likely happen to me. When this idea was being floated by the devs, they were suggesting a time limit of 35 days!That is waaaaaay too short for something like this. If this idea is ever floated again (and it may never be brought up by them again) they would need to be very generous with the time limit for subscribers not to riot.