I disagree. If it's done correctly, it can still hold 'value', but that's a word I wish people wouldn't use with housing - value. There is no value except for the one-time purchase. After that, there is no value to it - there is only a digital asset that is of interest to the owner. If there were a trading market, it would have value, but we "legally" don't have that in game (in terms of intended functionality, not the FC sales BS). It's really more of just 'salvage value'.
Getting off-topic here - You can still add 'value' to RP communities by keeping the ward look but have instanced housing.
You create one ward that everyone can go to, similar to how we all congregate at an aetherstone. The instancing takes place at the housing line property, so you have an instanced house of your choice, yard included just like we have now but it's your own instance. Purchase price doesn't need to change, relocating and losing property is no longer an issue, lotteries are a thing of the past, choice selection of houses that you can afford are available, etc. I could go on, but you can use the common area of the ward for RP, or have more people in your instance. By RPing in common areas, you can potentially increase your audience and interactions while keeping what Yoshi-P won't let go of - that neighborhood feeling.
I never see anyone in my ward, ever. It's lost on his great idea of neighborhoods.
Get rid of this stupid archaic thinking, get rid of these instances inside instances, inside instances (Really, does no one else see how stupid this is?) and create one singular area, literally getting rid of 59 other instances inside of instances per housing area.
This is a prime example of server architecture failure as it is now - let me make a Windows server. Inside that server, I create VMs. In those VMs, I create VMs to do things in those VMs. Or, do I create it smart - barebones platform, then create my singular common spot connected to instanced areas that are only created as needed. The overhead on hardware would make so much more sense, be less of a headache and solve the problems they and we have with housing.