If you craft at all, the npc materials vendor is great. They pretty much sell every mat available at every city. So no more "where was this sold at? Oh, now I need to port there...."

No, not everyone in my FC makes much use of the house, but some do and it's fun to hang out there.

I guess too, we don't know what features will be added to FC houses in the future. So, getting a house now before they are all gone and you CAN'T take advantage of these makes sense to me. Yes, I'm sure SE will add more wards at some point, but which will come first? More features or the wards? :/