Ducts in attic
My wife and I insisted on ducts in the attic when we built our home in Alabama. Even knowing the downside to this choice, as in: attic is hotter in summer causing valuable cooled air to be subject to hotter than necessary ductwork, and colder in winter causing colder than necessary ducts.
We chose to put them in the attic so we wouldn't need to dodge floor registers when arranging furniture and would not have floor level dirt going down into our ducts. To help offset this, we put a huge amount {compared to every other house we've seen in our area} of ventilation in our attic and 3 1/2" of opencell foam on the top of the ceiling sheetrock plus 15" of blown in cellulose over the foam.
All this said, the premise of ducts belong under the house is correct. The choice to put them in the attic will result in higher utility bills unless you go to great lengths to mitigate some of the problem you will have created for yourself.
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