I am in coastal washington state usa where it is one of the few places it might have made sense to build with wood..it was practically considered a weed..some species like alder..and we have earthquakes and it is good for that..and in a coastal climate you don't have the highs and lows. but i now question building with it even here...for social reasons if nothing else...you no longer have a stern matriarch or patriarch capable of controlling the lives of the housemembers..you have unrelated groups of people, you have retirement houses, you have large numbers of people with alzheimers, you have young people living in clusters, and last and worst of all,you have huge numbers of drug users. all of those are factors in fire consideration..plus you have renters..plus you have all sorts of people without enough money so repairs don't get done, appliances are jury-rigged....you have people who smoke in bed and they might be in an apartment next to you. my whole apartment house in the early 70s was in fear of fire although it was brick because a very old woman who had escaped the russian revolution would leave pots on...so even if you personally are totally aware and responsible, your neighbors on meth might not be...i think the fire risk is just too high now..plus there might be some substances that could be cleaned up after meth, flood, mold etc..ceramic maybe? and think if they had had elevated stone or cement houses in new orleans...and all of those twister and hurricane states....why in the world are they still building out of wood there...one of my big questions to ask everyone...no one likes the look of cement block except me, but reinforced it is pretty good for a lot of situations...anyway, if you have a chance, don't live in a wooden apartment house....mg