When I lived in WI and IL almost every house had a full basement. Here in hillbilly heaven (Nashville area) there are almost no basements. Most of TN is 3" of dirt on solid rock. And solid rock is not always good. Just today I spent $3200 on my current rehab house to have one corner of the foundation jacked up. You could literally throw a baseball between the bottom of the house and the top of the foundation. As a side note, that is one heck of a business to get into. They had 4 guys with no equipment except shovels, a few concrete blocks and a porta-power jack to raise the house. It took them 3 hours from start to finish. $1100 per hour! I only made half that much in my best year when I had my business. Sheeesh.