Part of the problem is people buying houses for selling. Just using an account to determine if they should keep their house wond hinder them in the slightest. With the 45 days reclamation timer you force them to log into each of their character to keep their houses which will hinder them a bit.
Also 45 days is long enough in my opinion, there aren't a lot of situations where you will be away from the game long enough for that to be an issue. Some say they want a break, i'd say you dont really need a house. And all the accidents, job loss, .... some people keep talking about makes it seem that playing the game is a very very dangerous thing.
To the people that claim that they suddenly introduced reclaim and they wouldnt have bought a house if they knew, when the player housing was first introduced there was supposed to be a 30 day reclaim system introduced alongside it. It got recalled after player outrage untill something could be put in place that wouldnt have you lose everything. So its not something new.

If it matters I do own a medium house.