I wouldn't say that. But I would say that anybody who buys a Yugo or Hyundai (although I hear Hyundais have gotten better) and expects it to perform like a BMW is going to be disappointed.
Yet most people think of "a house" as an undifferentiated generic product like gasoline or paper.
By definition, any product purchased primarily on price will quickly reach the lowest possible quality point. Think of airline travel. People purchase almost entirely on price, and we all know what has happened to the quality of the experience. The problem is that an airline flight lasts no more the 4 or 5 hours, in this country. You may be living in your house, purchased on exactly the same criteria, for 30 years or more.
I know houses seem expensive here, but they are built much more cheaply than in Europe or Japan. If I remember correctly, the average cost of the structure itself in the EU is about twice what it is here. In Japan it's 5-7 times greater.
Perhaps not coincidentally, these areas have a lot fewer problems with mold growth. Where they do have problems, it tends to be in the structures which have used building methods more similar to North American methods.