You can still do fakements like the Gables without excavating.
Gables isn't really a true basement but more a split-level (or tri-level) home where you get 3 levels but not exactly 3 "floors".
You can do garage + man-cave on bottom (or for many men, man-cave + man-cave), main living/dining in the middle and bedrooms on the top.
There are quite a few Turtle Rock attached homes/condos configured this way. That was the old 70s/Brady Bunch style of home. If you go to South County, there are quite a few homes built in the 90s that have an entrance you have to walk up to because they are split-level. I actually prefer those to real basements as you get more light and don't feel claustro.
There is still a cost component as there are lot-size considerations which TIC is trying to shrink rather than expand... but you never know, coming in 2014 at Orchard Hills... the California Basement!