Asian people like house facing North/South because of the heat from West afternoon, afternoon heat is longer and hotter than morning sun heat. Also, they don’t like lot of windows facing North, because of winter time, the cold air always come from North and make the house much colder inside, especially the insulation of house here is not good.

American likes lot of sunlight coming to the house so most of the house here are built facing east/west.

If you notice, the sun positions differently during summer and winter. To keep a house cool in summer and warm in winter, the best position is lot of windows facing south and back is toward north.