Kaila White

The Republic | azcentral.com

One hallmark of Arizona is its utter lack of bookshelves leading to secret, underground passages.

Where are the cool, damp wine cellars, dark and smelly game rooms and in-home speakeasies?

In other words: Where are all of the basements?

"Essentially, the expansive and hard soils in the Valley do create challenges for basements to be easily built, and that can often make them expensive," said Jacque Petroulakis, a spokesperson for PulteGroup.

So basically, builders don't want to spend the extra time and money.

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"In colder climes builders have to dig the foundation down below the frost line, whereas in Arizona it only needs to be about 18 inches. That's about it in a nutshell," said Marshall Trimble, Arizona's official state historian.

Of course, there are some homes with basements, usually pre-World War II neighborhoods (like downtown Phoenix's historical neighborhoods) or new, fancier developments, such as Agritopia in Gilbert.

Well, at least most of us also don't have to worry about rotting walls, accidental flooding or training to run up the stairs as fast as possible after turning off the light so monsters don't get us.

Besides, who needs a basement when you can have an Arizona room?

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