Question about housing prices.

[NyarukoW]

Guess with only 1.5 mil saved I'll have to settle for a FC room... can anyone tell me the specifics of these? can i garden and dye chocobos? I probably don't have an outside area to play with?

The FC should let you use the garden and stable, or at least have people assigned to take care of them and share the resources. And from that you can dye your chocobo. And it wouldn't require even having a room in the FC house.

... I sold my fc's small plot last week so we could afford our large lot. Should we have just eaten the loss?

If your FC is selling just their own lot, you are not manipulating the market, rather it is sad how you are being manipulated in the market that is already manipulated. You are doing what you can for your FC, but it is only further proof that the housing market is not immune to manipulation. Which is to say the following statement is false:

... I reiterate that nobody is manipulating housing prices....

If you must sell your existing small lot for a price that can cover your upgrade, you have already fallen victim to the manipulated market. Because compared to other servers, where all the new wards are like 25% occupancy or less, there is no market there to manipulate, there is no market period, since all of them are basically land grants from SE for nonimal fee.