there should be an option (checkbox) for "Create missing home folders" which would enable the pam_mkhomedir PAM module. possibly this should even be the default if you've enabled any network auth services. or even just the default generally? is there a reason why it's better to create the user's home on user creation rather than first login? authconfig-5.3.18-1.fc8
*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 212790 ***