eli5: Are there any benefits if building homes with wood vs brick and cement?

Question

The US makes homes with wood while the rest of the world uses cement blocks. Are there any added benefits over either?

In: Engineering

Answer 1

This question seems to be based on a false assumption, without any further qualifying statements.

Never been to a city in the US like St Louis, Chicago, or Fort Worth have you?

Cities that are near clay deposits may make use of that in the construction of buildings because it’s cheap, and they’re less likely to go up in flames(Chicago 1871). No clay deposits locally, or easily transported makes timber a suitable alternative.