I've lived in block/stucco in all 3 houses in Florida,
and am very happy with that type of home.

All I can say we sleep with the temp @ 69, I raise to 74 for during the day @6AM when I, usually wake, it takes 1 hr to get to 74, our house is block

Frame no way.... Termites and vinyl siding. Both are bad. Block will also hold up better in hurricane winds. Vinyl siding will be gone with the wind!

As to energy efficiency in addition to Carl's reference to windows other factors that may apply include the HVAC unit and how the house is positioned My home in Minneapolis area faced east and since our kitchen was on the west side we got a of of sun at supper time and was unbearable

Our stucco home here faces south. The thermostat stays a constant whether we are running the air or heat. While there was still no need to my wife and I decided to repaint the house using a rubberized paint that is suppose to provide a lifetime warranty but with a laugh my painter said if we got 15 years out of it consider that good. there were not any cracks and both the painter and I looked for cracks including micro cracks. Perhaps they will eventually show themselves?

One poster wrote in another thread that snakes were getting in between the vinyl siding and the exterior walls on his house.... that would be enough for me to go to stucco:eek:

....and the Moore, OK tornado in 2013 collapsed the concrete walls of an elementary school that killed 7 students.

And what would've been the outcome if it was built of two by's? Any better?

Finally some words of common sense.
As my husband said which he has done calculations of heat gains (manual J) for 40 years, everything is considered in heat gain calc's and air gaps are also part of thermo dynamics. as insulation packed in walls do not work either, it is the air between the insulation fibers is what gives you your insulation factor's,
God i sound like my husband now. L.O.L

No it would of probably Been a lot worse. Schools not good place to hide from OK tornados Unless they have safe rooms, which are built out of concrete. IMO in OK the only safe place is under ground when tornado in the area.