Albion's Seismic Design Category, explained

USGS's ASCE 7-16 seismic design model - the same standard building codes use - places Albion in Seismic Design Category B: Low seismic hazard. Code requires basic seismic detailing (bracing, connections) but no special structural system restrictions. Nationally, Albion ranks above 36% of the 4,875 cities in this dataset for seismic hazard - the 36th percentile.

Albion by the numbers

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.059g, short-period spectral response 0.114g, 1-second spectral response 0.051g. Among 153 Michigan cities in this dataset, Albion ranks 13 for seismic hazard, the 92th percentile within the state. About 7,494 people live in Albion, Michigan.

What a retrofit costs in Albion

Outside California, no state-level retrofit grant equivalent to Brace + Bolt could be found for Michigan. A typical retrofit still runs $5,000-$10,000 nationally, about $7,000 for a common single-family job.

What this means for insurance

Outside California, earthquake coverage is typically sold as an endorsement added to a standard homeowners policy, not a separate product - worth asking about directly when getting a home-insurance quote for a Albion address.

More on how this number was built

The methodology guide covers exactly how USGS's public design-maps API produced Albion's numbers. The guide to what a Seismic Design Category actually means covers why a category is never a substitute for an engineer's assessment of one specific house.