I'm at honeyside currently, it has it's perks. More storage, an enchanting table, maniquins. Also I have restored the TG fully so there 5 ppl to sell to in the ragged flagon with min 8000 gold each day... But, no smelter in Riften and distance to sellers is a bloody pain. I quite liked breezehome's location to the smithy next door, was super handy! Just running up to dragon reach to use the enchanting table sucked. What should I do? Move back? Or is there a better option in Skyrim? I can't be bothered having smithing/sellers very far from my home.
If I were you, I'd stick with honeyside. I actually moved TO Riften FROM Whiterun because of the numerous merchants and their insane buying power. Granted, Whiterun is a great city from an architectural point of view, and you can't beat the convenience of having a full smithing station, 2 blacksmiths & a fletcher right outside your door, plus a potion merchant and general goods vendor right down the street. Oh, and of course there's the third blacksmith at the Skyforge and the Jarl's court wizard who buys and sells magical goods. With all that said, I'd still choose Riften. The only gripe I have with that city is the lack of a smelter, as you said, but there's one in Shor's Stone, which is only a few whirlwind sprints away. But man, the merchants! If you don't get Brand-Shei incarcerated, you have 3 general goods merchants right in the main market square, 1 jewel vendor with much more gold than his counterpart in Whiterun, 1 blacksmith, 1 alchemist's shop down in the lower walkway, the Jarl's court wizard in the keep right across the marketplace, and up to 4 additional merchants down in the thieves guild with insane amounts of gold to spend on your goods, stolen or not. That, and honeyside does have pretty good storage options and an enchanting table, which breezehome lacks.
