Even now folks in India (my home country) are always amused when they see an American house being built. They say "it looks like it was built from toothpicks" – and my answer is always "have you actually held a 2x4? Hardly a toothpick."

I'm not sure about the structural pros and cons of wood vs brick, but from what I've seen here in the mid-atlantic, brick is nowadays used more as a decorative outside layer, rather than a superior structure (for homes at least).