I'm using Hod and Gerdur's house for my Altmer's start-over, and I'm using the non-respawning chest at the foot of the double bed for storage. Now, when I go to look in the chest again, some of the items I store are labeled red, as if they would be considered stolen if I were to take them. However, there is no "steal" option, just "take", and when I take them, no one in the house becomes hostile, nor are they labeled "stolen" in my inventory and neither do gain an increase in "items stolen" in my stats window.

Now, it seems painfully obvious that this is more of a bug and my things aren't being suddenly considered as Hod and Gerdur's property by the game when I store them in the chest. My question is--is this so? I won't incur the wrath of my hosts later on by taking red-labeled items from the chest that I put there myself to begin with?

I would assume no, but would appreciate if someone can confirm this...

I think it works on the basis of inherited ownership. That chest is probably marked as theirs. Ownership is an interesting thing in Skyrim. Contents of a friend's house may be available to take, but only those worth under a certain amount. They still are owned by them, and so is that chest. Putting your items in the chest probably causes them to display as if they were owned by the chest owners, but it doesn't actually change the ownership of the items themselves.

I tried to make that make sense but I'm not sure I did.

No, you made perfect sense--that's how I also think it works.

I've been taking things in and out of that chest with everyone around and thus far, no penalties. Seems like I've answered my own question; thankfully, the developers had the sense to put non-respawning containers in places the player might stay.