What are the historical reasons for why US homes are most often made of wood, as opposed to another building material (stone? adobe? idk)? This doesn't seem to vary in the cont. states by latitude?
1a.
Are there any connections between the build-a-house kits from the Sears-Roebuck heyday and this choice of building material? Did these kit homes help construct any sort of proto-New Deal-American Dream-style cultural ideal of attainment?
If my questions betray some fundamental misunderstanding of house construction, please help?
This is a strangely popular line of anti-American criticism you see on reddit, and here's an excellent answer from u/Logan_Chicago
If I dare to summarize, I think the major driver is the US just has a huge amount of cheaply available wood compared to, say Europe, along with the need to build more homes from scratch. Wood framed houses are perfectly capable of great longevity and durability (your question didn't comment on those common criticisms but that's usually where this train of thought leads). The drywall that makes up most of the interior walls is indeed fragile which can complicate hanging heavy things (one must mount heavy things to the wood framing - drywall anchors are suitable for some things as well) and be damaged easily. On the flip side, it's easy and inexpensive to patch and repair yourself. And that also makes it easy to change things, adding outlets and fixtures, for example, and getting access to wiring and plumbing behind walls. It's just a very different system with different pros and cons.