I guess even if you have the ability to tap into municipal lines, you should checkout the soil conditions to see if conditions are good for a basement or if you have the dreaded shrink/swell soil.  

I can tell you all about the engineering properties of soil.

@Sandy Magyar I just sent you a friend request. 

@Lia Locarnini While researching please keep in mind high TX property taxation as it effects cash flow and that certain locations have foundation issues due to clay soil.

You are looking to trench about 8" wide and 1-2 ft deep, install a lining (lining should cove the trench plus flap it back before the top soil), rock bed at the bottom of the trench (3" thick), place filter fabric (non-woven) around the trench and/or pipe, install a perforated pipe (6" at the most), fill with coarse aggregate (no sand or fines since it will clog the perforated pipe), close the materials with a double lap using the fabric, and then the top 4" top soil, etc, and a small outlet somewhere 10 or beyond away from the pavers that provides positive drainage (no water coming back!)  

So they move as the soil moves.

My guess is that drought conditions for last 3-4 yrs have caused the soil to move and that's why the foundation seems to have moved.

Sometimes it means installing piers *underneath* the foundation, which are usually long enough to go through unstable soil and either hit rock or more solid soil. 

This is caused by soil settling and is a common issue with pier and beam houses.

In the initial walk through of a duplex I have under contract, we noticed cracking along the outside of the foundation:We asked the owner about this and they said they recently had an engineer out to assess the foundation and he wrote:  "In this case, however, piers near the front wall are supported by a degraded soil bank.