I would not mind only one house, but I would want more options. In Morrowind I had a stronghold, but it was not in the most convenient spot, so I did not visit it as often.

In Oblivion I owned all the house, but none really stood out. I guess I used the Anvil house for the first part and Rosethorn Hall later on. I would like the ability to take over houses if you killed the owner (i.e. Blackwood Company in Leywiin, Umbacano's house).
I also would not have minded owning a property like Roland Jenseric's Cabin.

Another option in houses I would like is the ability to display items more easily. Like in the museum of artifacts in Morrowind. Where you click on a display case/table and you can choose which item to store. So that the items stay put/appear more organized.

I'd like the option to build my own fortress.

Multiple for sale in the cities, but you can only own 1 per city at a time (you can sell it and buy another one though). With Radiant Story it might select random houses for sale each time. That and three or four farms available for buying.

Also, renting houses would be good for low level players. You pay something like 200 gold, then 50 gold each week or something. Great for low-level characters who don't have around 5000 gold to buy a house. You can also buy the house that you're renting for:
original price of house - 25% or rent that you've payed over time
But the minimum price of buying a house after renting it is something like 25% of its orginal price.

Sorry if that's too much maths.

Though buyable houses in the cities are fine, what i really want is the ability to build a cliffside stronghold, or a wizard tower on some mountain peak, or a small huntsmans lodge in the middle of the wilderness.
House choices that vary in appearence and design from each other and not necessarily be in the cities.

I want to buy a house and then create a store, contrate eployers and select what kind of merchandice i want to sale.
(Only earn money one time for month)

And do the house prices like daggerfall prices, very, VERY expensive.
I am trying to buy my first house in this week.
(Yes! I am playing daggerfall today)

Oh! And Faction Strongholds that you can make later during faction quests.
I.E. Build a fortress for the Fighter's Guild.

MORROWIND SPOILER:

I say have each house in each city be upgradable like the strongholds in Morrowind. One in each city and one or two in the wilderness.

Go ahead and make the houses buyable in towns. Oblivions were more or less garbage and utterly generic so it wont be trouble to put a for sale sign on a few for those people wanting a fable simulator. Would prefer something similar to the great houses and raverock outside of cities. Bit more depth and a hell of a lot more character to those places.

I want a buyable, Ashlander style tent and a pack donkey/horse. Houses just weigh you down - you have to constantly go and check on it, etc. I would much rather find a nice field near where I'm going to be questing, preferably near a river or lake, and just setup camp.

Of course, I rarely keep more than I absolutely need anyway - I hock the loot for more practical stuff. I might like a house if gold suddenly gains weight, and there aren't any banks, but other than that, I'm just not seeing it for my character.

You mean to suggest BGS does things without consulting us first? That just crazy talk.

Like Helseth posted above, I would want multiple houses to be available, but only one could be bought per city. There could be some "royal decree" that prevents people from owning multiple houses and that's how you explain it. AI could be used to explain the other houses after you pick yours (i.e. if you pick house A, you find out later than an NPC bought house B and another bought house C). Then if you want to switch you offer to buy out the house from the NPC (or maybe they'll sell it to you if you do a certain quest/task), kill the NPC and take the deed, or steal the deed and kick the previous owners out of their own house. Then you move out your old house, inhabit the new one, sell the old one (or if you forget to sell it in X number of days, it becomes abandoned and someone else buys it from the Ruling group in that city or it becomes a random skooma den/etc.).

I want a quest where you help rebuild a town/village, much like the quest in oblivion east of the impereal city. Maybe you could come across a town that's been burned during a civil war battle (remember all the burned houses in oblivion, I always wished I could have bought and repaired them) and some of the residents are still living in their crumbling homes. Maybe some of the buildings are burnt to the ground (think Kvtach if the fire had fineally died ouut) and you can invest money to help rebuild or gather lumber, or maybe ask the nearist city for aid. It would also be cool if you were given a home (preferably the biggest/nicest one in town on a hill overlooking the settlement) that would be unique and only offered if you help the town. I think I would place the village about half way up a mountain above the fall forest area so that you could look out and see the whole world. Quests like this are in several game series like fable and assassians creed. I makes me feel like I'm affecting the world, like things in the world are physicaly changing because of my choices. I want to make it clear that I don't like the idea of a (sims) town, I don't think we should actually build the town or choose everything about (except in my house, I want atleast themes like Fallout 3 to customize it. Maybe a morrowind theme, oblivion theme, shivering isles theme). I like the sims for what it is, but that just doesn't fit with TES. I prefer the way it was done in assassians creed 2...but that's just me. Anyone else like this idea?

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Agreed! If I'm the hero of the game...dragon born should have a massive castle! And not in some lame DLC. I want it on disk.

Keep it interesting, dynamic, according to the varying economics. Maybe when I start all that is available is this awesome mansion. By the time I have money for it, all I get is a choice between three shacks. Another town can have two shacks and a house at the same time. It allows a certain artificial town size increase. Probably only one house at any given town at a time, plus a couple out in the wilderness. Unless you have a high bartering skill, be prepared to loose a lot of money from upgrading. Keys will be the only item without weight, but you can't throw them away, however the key to a house will be removed if you sell the house.

But also make gameplay for it. Make me *want* to visit my house(s). If I have a big mansion but is never there, what should that attract? It would be awesome if my Goldbrand was stolen and put in a random store, maybe in a different town, that I dropped onto by freak accident. By talking to the shopkeep, maybe bribing him, I may obtain information on who he got it from (radiant story). Let me have my own alchemy lab in my house, which may have a better quality to it than the alchemy shops I otherwise have to visit.

There should definitely be more than 1 house available for purchase per city. Take for example; if I want to live in Anvil, then I should not be limited to just one option.

House Building (through mini-game)------------ I don't think that is such a good idea. Seems a little "Sim-ish" to me, instead of TES.

I also agree with other people on the fact that we should not be able to own more than one home.

Not having seen the cities in Skyrim, I don't know the best way to divvy up the houses. However the larger cities should have more than one place to acquire. Maybe a hovel for those who are poor, or who want to hide their wealth and status, then a nicer house or maybe even a mansion.

However more houses are better than less, even if I don't buy all of them, I want the choice to.

I would also like to have choices of furniture styles or levels of finish. Buy a smaller house and furnish is exquisitely, buy a large house and put ratty furniture in it if I want.

I would like to have access to a country manor away from the hub bub of the city.

I would also like to be able to take over a house, including ownership of the containers ala Morrowind.

Multiple houses are pretty nice and also realistic if you are rich, you own a mansion or castle and some apartments in other cities then you visit. Might say only one house in a city but it makes moving a pain, you have to clear out all your stuff put in a temporary container and then move it to a new place just to realize you forgot the display cases a week later

This was present in Morrowind (Although not a Mini-game, more a succession of quests to upgrade the buildings) when you joined a House.

Something like this would depend on the factions available in Skyrim, if you can join some of the tribes, and rise in the ranks then perhaps a similar thing can be done, eg start with a tent end with an appartment above the main mead hall (like the bloodmoon expansion)

I personally would like to have a couple of houses available in each of the major cities, one for low level, and one for when you can afford it, or at least a shack to start with that you build up as you gain fame and wealth with hireing builders. But I would also like some sort of campsite that gives yo a fire and bedroll that you can pick up and take round with you.