I bet you could count on one hand the number of places in the world that, on average, have higher building standards than the US.
>Where I live at the moment for instance is concrete all around, including the roof.
Is the ability to stop space junk your measure here? Are we building homes or bunkers?
To those from countries with a similar building culture, USA houses feel really fragile; for instance, what do you mean you can punch a hole in a room's internal wall? We expect these walls to be made of brick.
Beyond that, “better built” in what sense? I’ve lived in the places that are built like bunkers (literally; Guam builds for direct typhoon hits). They are fine, but aren’t built for earthquakes, energy efficiency, or any other metric that’s more relevant in other parts of the world.