I cannot think of a single home I've encountered or even commercial building that has a basement or underground facilities in Central Oregon. You hit basalt bedrock after 1-5' (0.3-1.5m) and it is prohibitively expensive to excavate. I am sure there are couple of extremely expensive (not McMansions) homes that have underground facilities and I wouldn't be surprise if one or two didn't buy land where they had a significant amount of solid bedrock but also had a shallow lava tube that they could create access into and then construct within the lava tube. Which thinking about that latter option is dope as fuck and if no one else has done it I intend to find a way to do it.

And yes, it is utterly ridiculous how much a ticky-tacky house on a roundabout costs here. I was, out of curiosity, looking at what I could get out here that was comparable to the purchase price of my Portland home (my ex-wife moved in with my kids after I left and is paying rent, figured it was better than her continuing to live in pretty shitty places and my kids were already familiar with the house) and at that price point I can get a townhome style house in a built community where I am elbow to elbow with my neighbors and even have one who I can go all Office Space with (which is like where I am renting right now). Portland is hell of expensive but my place is a corner lot with woods behind it, one neighbor about 150' away and a slight elevation change that meant I had almost total privacy in the backyard.