Everett's Seismic Design Category, explained

Everett carries Seismic Design Category B under USGS's ASCE 7-16 model. Low seismic hazard. Code requires basic seismic detailing (bracing, connections) but no special structural system restrictions. Nationally, Everett ranks above 63% of the 4,875 cities in this dataset for seismic hazard - the 63th percentile.

Where Everett sits in Massachusetts

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.169g, short-period spectral response 0.282g, 1-second spectral response 0.067g. Among 58 Massachusetts cities in this dataset, Everett ranks 18 for seismic hazard, the 70th percentile within the state. About 51,825 people live in Everett, Massachusetts.

What a retrofit costs in Everett

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

Insuring against this, not just retrofitting

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 Everett address.

More on how this number was built

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