College Park's Seismic Design Category, explained

Under the seismic model IBC and ASCE 7 use for new construction, College Park is Category B. Low seismic hazard. Code requires basic seismic detailing (bracing, connections) but no special structural system restrictions. Nationally, College Park ranks above 44% of the 4,875 cities in this dataset for seismic hazard - the 44th percentile.

How College Park compares

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.069g, short-period spectral response 0.133g, 1-second spectral response 0.043g. Among 46 Maryland cities in this dataset, College Park ranks 15 for seismic hazard, the 69th percentile within the state. About 34,667 people live in College Park, Maryland.

Retrofit economics for College Park

Outside California, no state-level retrofit grant equivalent to Brace + Bolt could be found for Maryland. 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 College Park address.

More on how this number was built

The methodology guide covers exactly how USGS's public design-maps API produced College Park'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.