There's also not the NEED for basements like there is the Midwest. When we moved from the medium sized city where we lived to a small town literally 10 miles from our old house, we KNEW we needed a basement. The city RARELY gets tornadoes. The town we're in now has had 3 already this year, including one that tore part of the roof off of the school next door to my oldest daughter's school [but it was nighttime]. Without a basement, we wouldn't have anywhere nearly as safe to go. You just don't need those in Arizona [we had one tornado warning in the 12 years I lived in Phoenix and I don't think there was actually a tornado].
Carol
