Stucco covered eaves & gutters - sign of quality? (Phoenix: houses, roofing)

[Monster Daddy]

I have exposed painted wooden eaves on my house. FYI, eaves are the edge of the roof and most houses in Phoenix use wood 2x4s to hold up the roof tiles. Problem is, even with the small amounts of rain, I have 3 corners just molding/rotting away that I need to repair. And it doesn't look easy or cheap - grrrr!

I noticed some newer models stucco over the wood beams and/or add rain gutters like Fulton Ranch development I looked at. Curiously at the lower priced Fulton Homes' Geneva Estates development, some models there still have exposed eaves with no gutters.

Is this one sign of a better quality home?

[IMoveU]

How old is your roof? You may have a warranty claim with the builder if it is less than 5 years old. In any case, what builders do with the eaves has little to do with the quality of the roofing job. The idea is to move the water OFF of the roof and it appears yours is either backing up because of faulty flashing installation and/or improper placement of the underlay material or tile.

I know this is not a good time of year for this, but I would recommend an early morning expedition to the attic to check for the source of the leak. Look for buckling/warping along the seams of the MDX sheeting; sometimes water can get in higher up on the roof, run along the trusses and drip off the underside of your eaves.

If you don't find anything in the attic, you probably just have a flashing or underlayment issue at the edge of the roof that is causing the water to pool which is not terribly expensive to fix. It only gets expensive when you ignore it!