Neira got it partially right. My previous FC bought a house in a desired area on a desired plot a few weeks after housing was added (on a not hugely populated server at that time). Our FC only EVER met people from other FCs who had houses near to the summoning bell nearest to our house. I will admit that I made some long term friends from having a house in that area, but that was sheer chance. I've made other long-term game friends from waiting on a relic FATE (and I don't think anyone thinks those were a good idea).

The FC that was friendliest with my old FC, because we shared a summoning bell (this was before they could be put in the house), left the server, and sold to another. They weren't particularly friendly to people outside of their FC, so it died off.

Just putting more people into the current housing areas isn't going to make them more community minded. I wandered into Idyllshire tonight to show off a glamour to a friend, and the /sh chat there was just nasty. Someone asked in shout what pentamelding was and got told to "google it", and "How did you get this far without knowing?". There is no community in the housing areas because there is very little community in the game outside of linkshells and FCs.