Balmung has an amazing community of helpful people. I've never found myself without many volunteers for melds. Most of the friends I've made are just by randomly striking up conversation with someone idle wherever I was at the time. They're quite welcoming and kind, and I find that pretty common in every RP server I've visited on games.

Super hard housing situation though, as very rarely are there any houses for sale, and if so you can expect to spend 25 mill at least on a small.