VM, don't you live in St. Petersburg? How do you know so much about Moscow housing? As for apts for $150/month, there are lots of advertisements for these but they are just a scam. You call the agent's number (usually a cell phone) and you are told you must pay the rent first and then you will be given the address. Or you must pay a fee for a list of available apts (which of course don't exist). And since my Russian husband speaks fluent accent free Russian, he does all the talking when checking out our housing options.
And the stories about taxes and bribing building inspectors by wealthy dacha owners are from Moscow newspapers and TV news programs. These stories have been on the Moscow news all summer so you had better call them up and tell them you want them to stop "shamelessly lying".
Do many of the new dachas look like American houses? Well I guess that is a matter of personal opinion. My opinion is yes, they look like a typical large house in a wealthy American neighborhood.
Bad manners,maybe you can tell us how you know so much about American building standards? And since housing construction styles, rules, and laws differ in every state please specify which state has homes built of "paper affixed to a fragile framework". And roofs collapsing and sewers bursting at 40 below? Many places in America have winters just as cold as Russia (with just as much snow) and the houses have been standing for hundreds of years.