After experiencing every house in the game I am really dissapointed by a vast majority of them.

Markarth - So far the best house. Has both an enchantment station and an alchemy lab. Has the best amount of storage, lots of barrels and wardrobes as well as a chest at the master bedroom. Easier to get and at a very good price Very well worth it. Has 2 barrels right next to the alchemy station and multiple good sized bookshelves near the alchemy lab. Also one of only two places where you will find a non stone bed/ fur bed in Markarth. The other one is the Jarl's quarters in Understone Keep.

Riften- Very few storage containers, NONE near the alchemy or enchanting stations. IF you have alot of ingredients and become overweight you must walk from upstairs to downstairs. It's great if the first thing you want to do is cook then sleep all the storages are near the bedroom anyways. Good for a small house but whiterun has more storage.

Solitude- Expensive and doesn't have alot of storage to come with this. Has 2 barrels and a few sacks in the housecarl's quarters and looks like a servants lair. Also has one barrel closer to the enchanting station near the mannequins. Other than that you have to go upstairs to find more storage. Also the patio door is glitched. If you're not Thane of solitude you will not be able to enter your home from the patio door. Front door and basemant door work fine though. Once you get your housecarl that patio door becomes accessable. Also I'm not sure if it's true in all games but if you summon a bound bow and shoot the bound arrows into the basemant door they stay there. They are still in my basemant door and it's been almost a week of real life time since I shot that door with multiple arrows.

Whiterun- Would be the best house if it had an enchanting station. Has alot of storage places. Has one apocrathy satchel on the alchemy table as well as a chest on top of the only bookshelf in the house. Sadly the bookshelf and the lack of an enchanters station really is the only few things that muck it up. Other than Lydia likes to watch you sleep in the room which is rather creepy. Right next door to a forge and a smelter so the best place to level your blacksmith but not enchanting unless you like running the gauntlet on a daily basis.

Windhelm- Big dissapointment. Not only do you have to do an extremely glitchy quest which you are lucky if you trigger, but you also have to do the civil war quest and either completly finish it on one side AFTER doing the initial glitchy quest or partially finish it on the other. Before you buy the living room upgrade you must buy "clean up that murderer's mess" otherwise you will deal with a crappy mess in the interior for the rest of your game. Upstairs there is one single empty room which looks like it could be made into a kids room. There is no storage or anything in it so you can just dump whatever. The few storage there is one workign wardrobe near teh fake one that leads into the alchemy/enchanting room. NO physical storage units in this room. The kitchen has alot of satchels but no cubbords so it doesn't make sense to use the satchels and bags as storage for anything other than food. Again the majority of the storage units are in the bedroom.

Overall the majority of house design are a major dissapointment. Major lack in storage especially close to the aclhemy table, none have storage right next to the enchanter table. However Drelas, that dark elf in the woods of whiterun county has the best house. Storage near both alchemy and enchanter stations. Wish more houses were done simalar to this in layout with the storage units being RIGHT by the alchemy and enchanting stations.

The Markarth house is my favorite by far, but the city of Markarth itself can be a disadvantage for some people (for roleplaying purposes, or just because it can be laggy).

Since I'm a PC user, I have the totally fair advantage of installing a mod called http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1302 that adds an Arcane Enchanter (and another container) right next to your Alchemy Lab. This would make the Whiterun house even better for me, if I was the sort of person who did the main quest (most of my characters do not, and so they can't use the Whiterun house anyway).

The Riften house would be just as good as the Whiterun one if it had containers in the basemant. (I haven't bothered to look for mods for this one yet, but I'm sure there are some). I do like this http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2223, but it causes CTD on autosave 24 in-game hours after leaving the house...

<--- XBOX 360. If there were a way to use mods in game though maybe I would consider using them FOR the purpose of more storage since all the houses are lax

I love the markarth house, much storage, looks amazing, and many rooms. Funny glitch though, when I first entered, my manequin was ALIVE. It looked around and acted like a normal person, but when I interacted with it, it froze and turned back to normal. Same thing happened if I reloaded.

The Windhelm house is a good reward for a Stormcloak, though Blood on the Ice is definitely glitchy. But you feel like you really earned it. It's got the most space and storage. The unoccupied room is for the housecarl once you become thane.

I do think it's a big oversight to not have storage near the alchemy and enchanting stations. I also don't much care for the Solitude house. Riften is probably my favorite. It's got a nice moldy charm to it, and the garden is nice, though does not seem to respawn. Actually it finally respawned for me after about forty levels- then when I came back the next day, someone had stripped it!! Not me, that is. Of course this is while my character was out robbing other people...

The one in Markarth is probably my second favorite. It starts to feel small, though, if you're used to Hjerim.

I use PC with no mods active do not know for x-Box

Whiterun- A great house like it a lot. One drawback you have to run to the Castle for enchanting. By the way in the kitchen between fireplace and door at a wall is a second bookshelf with more storage for books think its 2x 18 places alchemy bookshelf its 2x10 places.

agree the housing is on the poor side. i know beth looks at mods, do they not see what kind of house mods are the most popular, thus, what players want in a house? every housing mod i see has tons of storage...for fallout 3, oblivion, and FNV. no containers by work stations simply doesn't make sense; in real life or a game. i would more or less be ok with the houses as is, if container storage made sense. i don't know why they removed fallout style container sorting.

markarth is probably the best, though i won't live there again (the people of markarth are a horrible lot). whiterun is very solid, practical with adequate storage (no enchant table is a big negative though). riften is my favorite aesthetically, but it's too small and with the housecarl and a wife, i'm constantly pushing them out of my way and listening to a non-stop barrage of 'my thane this' 'my love that'. please stop talking already.

also, there's really no excuse for the houses to have as many bugs as they do. i find it impossible to believe these bugs were not found during testing.

In my previous game I purchased the house in Riften, closer to the Thieves Guild. This house was not worth the money I paid. Plus all the glitches I encountered was annoying.

The house in Windhelm is nice, but the problem is there is hardly any storage, especially in the Alchemy and Enchanting Room. I really wish that the so called "secret cabinet" was removed and a door way put in its place. A chest in this room, the trophy room and the upstairs bedroom and it would be perfect.

Markarth is probably the nicest out of the homes, lots of storage but I am not a fan of the city. Breezehome would be perfect if only it had an enchanting table.

Worst home IMO is Solitude and considering what you paid for it, you would think it would be amazing but its turns out to be a disappointment. And not to mentioned I have to pay to get this house to get that darn gem :/

In Riften, the housecarl's room is really close to the alchemy table. In that room are two storage containers, and the wardrobe is very close to the alchemy table itself. If you frob the wardrobe while standing in the doorframe, you only have to do very few goose steps to reach the alchemy table.


That said, I think I like the house in Whiterun most. You don't have to run a long way to the house from the city's gate. Once inside, you also don't have to cover vast distances between front door and your storage containers. Also, Whiterun is ideally suited in the center of Skyrim instead of in some far away corner of the country.

The disadvantages are of course the creepy peeping girl in the bedroom and the lack of an arcane enchanter. I didn't mind to run up to Farengar's arcane enchanter on my last character, but I can easily see how this is a nuisance in the long run.

I agree.Markarath is the best.Makes you feel that you are a trully king.This is why i sayed to my wife and me live's there.

I agree with some people here.

I am happy with the hoops that you have to jump through to get the Houses (makes me feel like I earned it, not just buttering up some Duke or Duchess...), but I would have like to see more variety. I do like that not all holds have a house available, Dawnstar is much too small to have a standing "abandoned house for sale" for instance. But you would think that there would be several abandoned houses in Winterhold because of the Great Collapse. Or have different houses to choose from in one city (like Solitude. It's a large enough metropolis that they could have easily given you two or three empty houses to choose from).

I love the houses I have bought, and I love the game that Bethesda has given us, but I think a small bit of extra variety in residential housing would have been great.

I've yet to have a problem with Proudspire Manor, but I have nothing bad to say about the Markarth house.

On my main I have the house in Markarth and I am personally very pleased with it. Only thing I do no like is the lack of mannequins and other display things like wall mounts (it has a few, but would have loved more).

On my thief/assassin I was able to do blood on ice so I bought Windhelm home as I was dying for it on my main but quest wouldnt start. Needless to say it did not live up to my expectations... Its lacking in terms of containers ( I have to store ingredients in a wardrobe and a whole mess ton of weapons and armor in an endtable no bigger then a box?) but I like the amount of item display things (even though when I try using the wall mounts with the shields, it removes my weapon and they just VANISH).

Im really hoping they add some very nice, large, and filling homes/building DLC's like they did with Oblivion...

Preferably without the major game deflating house bugs would be nice.

I have to agree.

The Markarth house is by far the best, but it's location svcks. The city itself is in is way out in BF, Egypt, and the house's location within the city is horrible, too.

On the other side, I LOVE the location of Breezehome, but it's TINY. I have fixed the issue of no enchanting table with a mod, but the size of the house can't be fixed. I also can't stand Lydia watching me sleep, but I have plans for her...

I wish I could just swap the Markarth and Whiterun house locations. Having Vendrill Hall in the spot that Breezehome currently occupies would ROCK.

Anyone know if containers reset in Drelas' house? I killed him in self defense a few days ago, and his house is nice and cozy. I wouldn't mind setting up shop there if my alchemy ingredients were safe there.

Riften is my overall favorite house. I like cozy houses, I guess. I can't believe I didn't notice I could store items in the housecarl's room in the basemant! That alone elevates the Riften house to #1 for me. I had been doing all my alchemy in Whiterun, but now I can really make Riften my home.

The Markarth house is the coolest-looking one, in my opinion. I really like the bookshelves there, and the ambiance is the most "heroic" seeming to me. Like someone else said, you really feel like royalty there. Unfortunately, the location is super annoying.

Solitude was a huge disappointment. I wish there were more display locations there, especially some on the main floor!

i couldn't really tolerate any of the default houses , not enough treasure chests side by side for easy access and storage. so i made my own using console.

join the college of winterhold and work your way up to top mage and you got the best house in the game!

Bah, houses are over rated. I got one in Whiterun and Solitude. Fully furnished and all and they look nice. Problem is I'm never home. I'm forever in some cave, fort or ancient ruins getting chased by who knows what. I sleep in inns close by or bedrolls along the way if I need rest and drop in on a fence or 2 every once in a while to sell off valuable junk. I got 2 barrels full of alchemy ingredients in my Solitude house which I keep promising myself I'm gonna make potions of someday and more than enough junk in the chests in both houses. Which I also keep promising to sort out and sell someday. I just need to finish this dungeon real quick and then I'll get started on that...

The Abandoned House in Markarth has tons of storage, and is better located than the player house. There's no upgrades, though. And there's that shrine in the basemant...

I think every house needs something, usually storage. Breezehome just needs the enchanting table, which is fixed by a mod. Of course, since I'm not doing the main quest, I can't buy the damn thing.

I like the dawnstar sanctuary with the master bedroom add-on. Chests, shelves, etc. all in the MB, a garden right behind the Alchemy lab, plus the creepy vampire chick is usually hocking her wares at the table right behind you. It a bit of running around int here to get from the bedroom to the enchanters table to the alchemy lab, but you can leave what you need by the equipment you will use, or in the bedroom, instead of carrying it around. All in all my favorite place.

Unless you're trying to avoid dragons completely in your game then just do the mq up to killing the first dragon. Personally, I prefer dragons in the skies. It gives the world a more dangerous feeling. I'm level 49 and haven't even met Delphine yet.

This. But like Markarth, the location is just as bad for a non fast traveler lol.

There is an empty room in Markath's house. With spiderwebs and firewood all around. Any purpose with it?