Ten years ago I would have answered this only in terms of liveability of the home and how it impacts resale value.
Then I moved to CA, where earthquakes kill people. If you are living anywhere near a fault line you must prepare for the eventual "Big One," an earthquake of such magnitude it will destroy all construction of certain types within danger zone radius around fault line.
I now believe that keeping my family alive during the eventual BIG earthquake is far more important than other factors when it comes to choosing home layout and construction.
I think if you dig around on this web site you'll find a lot of good data covering earthquake damage risk for various typical home and office building construction types in CA.
If I recall correctly, of typical homes on the market in CA, the safest are wood framed single story SFH, built AFTER 1939 (better yet, built within last 10-15 years), no masonry chimney above living area, and obviously located as far as possible away from fault line and not on a liquifaction zone.
If you must get a two story, you should always ensure a bedroom is not over the garage, because generally rooms over the garage can collapse during earthquake.
(Also, older multi-story condo or apartment complexes are some of the worst places to be in an earthquake.)
I've noticed people are oddly IRRATIONAL about protecting themselves from REAL risks to health and life. Consider how few people think about earthquake risk when selecting a home, relative to home age, construction type, number of floors, and location.
Yet many Californians will agree there is a significant possibility that in the next 25 years an earthquake of 8 or greater magnitude hitting one or more major population centers in CA such as LA, San Diego, or Bay Area.
I know plenty of people who stopped eathing beef when a few people in Europe were stricken with "Mad Cow" disease. Then those same people stopped eating chicken when Asia had the rare "Bird Flu" deaths in the news. Yet those same people go to sleep every night in a home/apartment/condo of a construction type that WILL collapse during a major earthquake, killing them. They are being irrational.
Are we being just a little paranoid here?
I guess you better not shop in two story malls, work in offices with more than two floors, go to parks with trees nearby, or send your kids to any public schools with more than two levels.
Sorry, but somehow, I'm not seeing how a home collapse would be a bigger deal than commercial structures, especially how most people here have been acknowledging that most of the newer homes are stucco boxes made out of wood, stucco, etc. That is, unless you're a hermit that doesn't mind living away from civilization.
I think the statistics of you being killed from a car accident, random crime, etc are probably greater than from an earthquake that demolishes a home built to building codes meant for earthquake prone areas…
Ok, but I admit. I suffer from occasional paranoia too. For awhile, I was considering hiring a nanny that lived in a rough neighhorhood from Chula Vista. If we decided to pick her, we would have to drop her off friday in the late evenings. With my wife having to do this occasionally, I didn't like the idea…So I had actually looked at into companies that add light body armor and bullet resistant windows to SUVs and cars. My wife thought I was crazy.
..And the madness didn't stop until she reminded me of a story that I read me about a guy from L.A…. He was so afraid of being shot by a driveby freeway incident, he decided to buy a bullet-proof Mercedes..Unfortunately, after months waiting for it to arrive, he was shot dead on the way to pick it up.
I guess the morale of the story is, if sh!t's going to happen and if it's your time, there's nothing you can do about it…Which is why you should enough everyday of your life while you can.
