Getting a house sucks, no argument there, but the sad truth is, housing is nearly not used at all. Everybody wants a house, but then the vast majority of players leaves it to rot.
I have several neighbours, I have never seen them, not once have I met them in the last year.

My maybe unpopular opinion is that housing needs to be guild only, no private houses. And instead of investing money into providing everyone with a house they should make the housing areas more fun, more interactive, so people actually have an incentive to go there. Change the housing areas into a permanent festival area, make it similar to the gold saucer.