Well mine was whiterun at first because its my main stash of items but now its riften i like the house there a lot.

My favorite town is Falkreath, but it's a shame that there is no house available for purchase. Well, at least without mods.

My Orc's hometown is Markarth, because he loves anything to do with dwarves. For my thief it is Riften and for my mage it is the College, pretty obvious really.

Lol I know right. i want Idgrod the Younger

Vlindrel Hall is clearly the best laid out player House in the game. I'm not the biggest fan of Markarth in general though. It's layout is confusing and awkward to negotiate.

Markath is home but I admit not exploring the surrounding area as extensively as other areas like around Whiterun, Riverwood, Invarstead, and Riften, etc.

It's mostly my own personal preference but I tend to decide what city my character will be based out of at the creation phase. I then go there and acquire property as soon as I'm able, and explore the locale.

Riften. It feels like a small town, but it's pretty homely in that respect. I like the forest around it and the lake, and there are Argonians about.

I also consider myself based out of Falkreath. I actually took over angie's house which is the most southernest point in all of skyrim but do all my shopping and selling in Falkreath.

Whiterun I think.

Is there actually anywhere you can stay in Falkreath?

No house to buy if that's what your asking. Not yet anyways.

No, I mean available inns or favour follower houses.

I have had all the houses at one time or another but my favorite is Riften. It's nice to not have to enter the city and my boat has several fishing rods.

Markarth is my second favorite house.

The only real home I had that I thoroughly enjoyed was in Shor's Stone, when I married Sylgia. Little village life can become boring rather quickly though.

Markarth would be nice, but silly bugs prevent me from getting it.

Whiterun is useful, but far too plain for me.

Riften has a nice house, but I hate the perpetual cloudy weather.

Solitude is too expensive.

I've also lived in Bloated Man's grotto a few times while enjoying my time as a man-beast, as seen in my avatar.

Markarth. Everyone wants to kill me, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

I didnt buy the house until I had extra money - I used the two barrels at th blacksmith as my "house" until futher in the game where I had enough money to say "hey what should I spend this on" then I bought it
I also didnt grind blacksmithing - what I did was just explore and adventure - and put stuff in the barrel after each mission. Then I had one barrel with ingots, leather, etc - I would grab both barrels - then just go over and upgrade things I got from missions - then sell it all across town starting at the blacksmith. When they ran out of money, I stored the remaining in the barrel and headed out to adventure again. I also would buy stuff first from people I wanted things from like potions and things - then sell to the same person since now they had more money and I had alot of things to sell. I think I finally hit 100 on blacksmithing about level 43. My character doesnt actually wear armor anymore - I wore it up to about level 25 while I used a mace in one hand - magic in the other - and now I have switched to wearing mage robes and still killing things with the MACE when they get close. I can always cast healing in one hand while beating the crap out of them with the other.