Back in the 1970s, it was extremely common to buy a US-made brand-new car and have all kinds of major defects. It didn't matter that they were made in factories under "controlled conditions": the factories were poorly run, and the products that came out were junk. Dealers had large lots of cars that had just arrived from the factory and needed repairs before they could sell them. It wasn't until Japanese cars were imported in huge numbers, and had consistently high quality, that expectations changed.
The problem isn't factory vs. non-factory, the problem is culture. Many parts of American society have a culture of lying and cheating and making junk products and then lying to try to cover it up. Just look at Boeing.
For new-build houses? I haven't heard that, but then again I haven't heard otherwise for other western nations. The way the US builds houses seems positively primitive and backwards, but I don't know much about how they're built in places such as UK or Germany. Here in Japan, single-family homes seem to be largely pre-fab, and assembled from modules on-site. Here's an interesting article about it:
One notable quote from the article: "The country’s population is roughly twice that of the UK, yet over six times as much new housing is built in Japan than in the UK each year."
In mainland EU, things are a bit better, but housing is definitely one of the worst industries in terms of customer satisfaction. I don't think I have ever seen a new build that didn't have some serious problems, like roof leaks.
The problem isn't factory vs. non-factory, the problem is culture. Many parts of American society have a culture of lying and cheating and making junk products and then lying to try to cover it up. Just look at Boeing.