I remember in Oblivion breaking into houses and stealng was way too easy. I'm finding the same in Skyrim and wondering what others thought about it?

I'm playing a sneak thief/battle mage (joined the Thieves Guild), but have found little challenge in breaking, entering and stealing throughout my progression in the game. For examle, I just did The Sweep Job that required breaking into the Atherton home in Windhelm. I waited until 1:15 am, picked the adept lock and, in sneak mode, broke in. The occupants were still awake (on their way to bed) and I was visible for a couple seconds. Granted I have 75 sneak and was wearing a necklace of sneaking (20% increase) giving me 90 sneak. However, even the best thief would be caught if he/she picked a lock and opened the door to find the occupants a few feet away. The noise alone would alert them. That's just one example. Others B&E's have presented little challenge, spoiling the thrill of nearly getting caught!

Is B&E too easy or am I just too skilled?

I havent done much thievery yet, at least not on this playthrough, maybe the next one. I have been doing a lot of sneaking, though. And it is very easy, and the Dwarven Boots of Muffling I picked up recently only made it easier

But, as a counterpoint. I was in Riften, and went to the Black-Briar house. I see Ingun sitting in there, so I talk to her for a bit, and pick up her quest. Close out the dialouge, and she glares at me and says "You're not supposed to be here!" Then a bounty gets placed on my head and a guard comes in. The house had locked up for the night while I was talking to her, and I was arrested for trespassing! This was before the 1.4 patch, so dont know if it would still happen.

In general it is really easy for me, however there seem to be a few residences where there's always someone awake and sitting right next to the door and see me instantly (even with my sneak at 100 and all perked out).

But yeah I do think it's still too easy. I mean heck with those residences I just mentioned, I just waited till broad daylight, waltzed right in past the witless shopkeeper, closed the door behind me and robbed his house blind, then had a nice friendly neighborly chat with him before I sold every single item he had. It does feel very easy.

I have such a high Sneak I'm practically invisible as soon as I crouch, and can sneak through entire dungeons without alerting anyone. Of course it is easy... it was when I was only about level 20, as well, because most store owners don't follow you when you go Strongbox Huntin'. But Radiant Raimant's owners did follow me... so I became a werewolf and mauled them.

Yeah it's easy, but there's practically nothing worth stealing anyway....

I think people are to an extent forgetting Skyrim is a dynamic game. In games like Thief or Assassin's Creed, the game is entirely gearred up to making a stealth experience with NPCs - even ones in their own homes, performing routine patrol paths with moving blindspots you need to duck into to evade detection. Skyrim is a much broader game than that and NPCs react marginally move in a less scripted fashion and have more of a day to day routine (Get up, have breakfast, go to work, go the pub with friends, chill out, go home, stare at a wall for 6 hours, go to bed)

Okay, now get a horse, ride it to a town or what-have-you away from a Forsaken Camp, then hike to the camp. I guarantee that as soon as you can see a Forsaken 1 pixel in size or greater, your sneak will be blown.

The fix is not to have any horses. Anywhere.

Otherwise, yeah, indoors it seems almost silly, but we have to make allowances for the fact that we can only use two of our senses in the game. It's bad enough having two bandits at a table, one-shotting one of them only to have his buddy say, "Is somebody there?"

(pause for fruitless search)

"Guess it was my imagination. Pass the salt pile, will ya?"

No, I don't think it's too easy.
And oblivion's was even more difficult with psychic guards, IMHO.

I feel that way too, because since I have reached Sneak lvl 40 or so, I've never been caught robbing people. Sneaking in dungeons, however, seems not to work well for me.

Skyrim is too easy I agree, but Oblivion is much harder then Skyrim. I put Skyrim down for a bit and picked OB back up as a thief and was shocked at how much harder it is. Npcs are less predictable, in Skyrim it seems everyone is out of the house during daylight and asleep at night. In OB I've been caught by nightowl npcs I thought would be sleeping. The ridiculous psychic guards also up the difficulty some, lastly in OB the front door is locked, the interior doors are locked and anything of value is in a locked chest, not laying around like SK, which also adds to the difficulty.

Then again Beth has always struggled with late game stuff, especially sneak. Once your skill is high you're a ghost.