Yeah, a house with a basement was our 'eventual plan' for when we out grew our first house. I had ideas for a 'Wood Shop' and a 'Photo Darkroom'. Plus a Wet Bar and Pool Table in the 'Rec Room' area.
But we stuck with our first and only house - a Townhouse with a crawl space(1). Our sump pump only went off for about the first year or two and that was back from 78 to 80 and it hasn't went on since, and neither has any of the neighbor's pumps. All that original ground water is now long gone. (Our Development was built on what was previously a big Farm).
And our cul-de-sac and immediate area is at a raised elevation too over other areas in our development. We were early buyers and I picked our lot for many specfic reasons, one was potential flooding.
(1) And now that our two daughters are grown and gone there's no reason to move either. I still don't have that Darkroom but the garage is fine for Wood Working.
Big buildings in Houston have basements and I always wondered how they managed to keep flood waters out until the time that it happened. One of the hospitals’ basement flooded and ruined a lot of equipment. Then a basement parking garage flooded and a woman went down into it in the elevator and drowned in the elevator. That would be one of my worst nightmares, being in a flooded elevator and not being able to get out.