No, brand new houses and apartment buildings in at least the Bay Area are of shoddy quality compared to brand new houses built to Northern European standards. Same goes for older houses. Doesn't matter if it's brick or wood or concrete, there's just a huge quality gap.
Some of it is explained by the climate, it always amuses me to see housing ads proudly proclaiming "double glazing!". Meanwhile, over here, triple glazing has been the legal minimum for decades, and older houses were required to retrofit it.
Some of it is explained by the british heritage, they can't build houses on the british isles either.
The rest, I don't know how to explain. I guess people simply don't know how good houses they could be having, and therefore don't crave it?