I recommend Emma's house mod for sure.

Markarth is probably the least glitchy and it's a nice home.

I personnaly love Windhelm and Riften too but Riften is indeed glitchy (Xbox) and Windhelm can be a problem to get as you have to advance the Civil War quest line.


Side note on your "encumbered" problem, I assume you know you can make power attacks to go faster (just don't hit anything alive). It's still slow but it does go faster... a bit. There's also the Whirlwind sprint shout but guards don't like it. I almost never take stuff past the weight limit but on the rare instances where I do, I power attack and/or shout my way to the nearest shop.

As others have said, Markarth is likely the best choice.

The homes in Solitude, Markarth, Riften, and Windhelm all have enchanters and alchemy labs, IIRC. Unfortunately, no home has more than that. I really wish I could have a forge setup, but none of the homes come with any of the stuff... I'm hoping this will change with DLC homes, like in Oblivion.

This. Plus, it's stone so if you have enchanting and/or alchemy mishaps there's less to burn.

I love the house in Markarth but I hate the city.

How? Seriously. Is there something I'm missing? Even if one really, really cares about a smelter there's one in Whiterun next door to Proudspire. The smelter in Markarth is all the way across town from the house, as is the alchemy shop. How many shops are there in Markarth because I'm only aware of three.

I've never had a mishap - I was just joking. Would be kinda' funny if it could happen though.

I do wish that at least one of the houses had a complete set-up of all of the crafts. If Breezehome in Whiterun had an enchanting table, it would be perfect. I don't enjoy having to walk all the way to Dragonsreach to enchant something. I invariably forget to take everything I need, such as potions or that filled Grand Soul Gem, and the wizard doesn't sell them each time I visit. If Riverwood had a Smelter, it would be another good choice along with the Sleeping Giant Inn there. As it is, I have to go to Whiterun to smelt my ore and make ingots and then go all the way across town to enchant.

Markarth has a Smelter.

Without mods, I'd vote for Breezehome as it has the basics. As others have pointed out, there are 3 weapons merchants nearby and the only drawback, amenity-wise, is easily reachable at Dragonreach for the enchanting table.
Unless of course you're wanting mannequins & weapons racks, it's a whole different story. But facilities-wise I'd go for Whiterun.

Markarth.

Awesome view.
Dwarven architecture.
Lots of space.
Mannequin.
Enchanter.
Alchemy Lab.

Theres some pretty good mods for breezehome as well.

i didnt like any of the homes provided

i always just move into a camp in the hills after i kill anything living there

On my first and current character I own all the houses, and after a lot of decisions and moving I decided to base out of Markarth.

It's very pretty, with three bookcases all in one place (yay, reading corner!), lots of racks, enchanting, alchemy, everything. I don't really mind walking all the way to the smithy or alchemy shop. If I can walk from Whiterun to Winterhold in a few in-game hours then damn right I can crawl backwards to Bothela's, get back and still be home for lunch. Just joking. Maybe even before lunch.

If I get bored of it or decide it's not so good, I always have four more houses in large cities, a Sanctuary, a little shack in Dawnstar (mod), the Archmage's quarters and so on.

I'm on the ps3 too. The patch did fix this for me also, but now everything I store ( in the bedside chest anyway ) becomes red text item. So when I take them they become flagged as stolen, and my follower Fandael tales them from my inventory. I have not stolen anything and my stats show this.

Breezehome has the best house location to stores, Vlindrel Hall has the best house layout + not far from main gate.