The Pale house (Heljarchen Hall), for the following reasons:
1.) It's centrally located, which means less traveling time on foot if I choose to do that.
2.) It's very close to Whiterun and Riverwood. Hard to beat Heljarchen's location for that reason alone. The other places just don't have the sheer numbers of shops or merchants nearby, plus, I get to catch the Khajiiti caravan. Can't say that about the other two locations. Even more important to me is the fact that you have FOUR blacksmith merchants within a few minutes walk. When your main income tends to come from Smithing weapons and enchanting them, that becomes vitally important.
3.) I've found that Heljarchen doesn't have quite as many attacks as Lakeview does in my experience. When I had Lakeview, I was under nearly-daily attacks, and it felt that every time I went outdoors, I had a bandit, wolf, or suicidal mudcrab in my face. Annoying!
With Heljarchen, I only had one Giant attack, and periodic preventive cleaning of the two nearby Giant camps tended to cut down on things. Plus you have the nearby Lorieus farm to raid for crops as needed, plus Battle-born and Chillfurrow farms for the wheat supplies.
4.) The view isn't much with all the cold and snow, I admit. Lakeview is very pretty, but I wish it was closer to a major city with all the merchants instead of near a graveyard in the back of beyond with very few merchants/farms.
Just my two cents.
I'm not sure I get this. Whiterun is probably closer for the Pale home than the Lakeview one, but the Lakeview one is not much further, plus you are almost halfway between Falkreath and Riverwood, each of which is less than an hour away (game time). You can make a run down to Whiterun via Riverwood in about 2 hours, come back home and still have time to run down to Falkreath and back before the sun sets. Also, there is a Stormcloak camp just east of Helgen where you can sell even more stuff.
I think the Pale home would be a nice place. I like the view of the valley, Dragon's Reach, and Throat of the World. Plus, you have quick access to Blackreach via the Tower of Mzark. But I think Lakeview is superior for access to merchants.
Edit: One other plus for the Lakeview home is the quick access to the Guardian stones. You can switch up stones for a training session, then when you are done, run back and switch to a different stone.