I strongly suspect this is why half-timbered houses, although being much more earthquake resilient than stone houses, haven't been common in Italy for thousands of years now. There simply wasn't enough wood left.
And almost no old castles, palaces or significant ruins in flat and rock-less areas like west pomeranian in Poland. Bricks and stones were so valuable, that any abandoned stone/brick building was dismantled immediately for material for new buildings.
