Countries use the building material most available to them. In much of Europe that's stone because wood has mostly been harvested to the point of extinction (a

Countries use the building material most available to them. In much of Europe that's stone because wood has mostly been harvested to the point of extinction (and wood is expensive to transport long distances). Whereas in North America wood remains an inexpensive building material. Wood, combined with modern insulation and building codes, can be safe and efficient enough for modern homes. As someone who has lived in both parts of the world, wood takes some getting used to but you start to appreciate it after some time. Specifically brick may provides better noise isolation, heat retention, arguably can look nicer than drywall, but on the downside once a home is built modifications can be extremely challenging/expensive (whereas drywall/wood is almost like LEGO in terms of being able to re-configure non-load interior walls, even for handy homeowners themselves). Will a brick home outlast a wood home? Absolutely, no question. But that advantage is largely lost in the US. Cheaper land means homes are more spaced out, and wood construction means they're cheaper to re-build, so homes are often completely gutted or entirely re-built so a new owner can put their personal "stamp" on their home, whereas it is impractical to rebuild a European home due to neighbor proximity, cost of brick construction, and land size (i.e. there's often no other configuration that's workable for the lot). So these days, I don't consider one superior to the other. They both have advantages and trade-offs, and frankly the contest is irrelevant as brick isn't suddenly going to get cheaper than wood in the US nor wood get cheaper than brick in Europe.