At least in California, we don't use it because brick buildings crumble in earthquakes. http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-quake-safety-thousands-of-b

At least in California, we don't use it because brick buildings crumble in earthquakes. http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-quake-safety-thousands-of-brick-buildings-still-not-retrofitted-20140826-story.html http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-quake-safety-tho... In new construction, you can use it as a facade, but not for anything structural (to oversimplify a bit.) Elsewhere in the US, brick would probably be a good choice, but it's more expensive than slapping together another bargain-basement wood-frame house. On the other hand, for some reason, Europe has a lot of brick buildings and even still puts in brick streets sometimes.