I can see how much trouble housing would be given the "lobby style" server structure they have announced.

How the heck could you give someone a persistent house in a persistent world, when they will be logged into new world instance (based on preference) every time they log in? I can see why housing was something they pushed aside and I hope they can implement something that still makes it feel like you have a HOME BASE to work from as you take on the world. It will really help it to feel less like you are playing on a newly generated map each time you log in. The loss of a persistent world has the potential to sink this game but I'm not ready to give up on it at all. I just hope they can make it feel like you are logging into the same world each time even though you are not.

Well, the phasing system is designed to make it seem like the player has a lasting impact on the game world. So somehow the game is keeping track of things you have done, and makes sure that you are in a world that reflects that every time. Despite the fact that this will be a dynamic server, I get the feeling that the world will feel more static than others.

Instanced housing would obviously work perfectly.