Honestly there are plenty of houses - even on busy servers.

There are a "few" exceptions like Balmung.
Its because people will not settle for a small; they want medium or bust and so they act like they cannot get something that is going to take a long time to achieve in general.

That said now that shell FC's are a common practice SE is going to have to do something about that before long. Because now that "FC's" are competing for private homes it means that the odds of getting a private estate you want are dropping significantly due to you competing with peoples alts.

Until the issue of shell FCs which are taking property and thus violating the ToS; they really should drastically reduce the wards that "FCs" can bid in. I would love to see the data SE has on how many 1 account FC's are bidding on houses as it now seems to be common practice.