Falcon Heights, MN: what USGS's seismic model says

Falcon Heights carries Seismic Design Category A under USGS's ASCE 7-16 model. Lowest seismic design category. Building code requires no seismic-specific detailing here beyond ordinary construction practice. Nationally, Falcon Heights ranks above 3% of the 4,875 cities in this dataset for seismic hazard - the 3th percentile.

Where Falcon Heights sits in Minnesota

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.022g, short-period spectral response 0.047g, 1-second spectral response 0.029g. Among 155 Minnesota cities in this dataset, Falcon Heights ranks 141 for seismic hazard, the 9th percentile within the state. About 5,002 people live in Falcon Heights, Minnesota.

Bracing and bolting: the actual cost

Outside California, no state-level retrofit grant equivalent to Brace + Bolt could be found for Minnesota. 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 Falcon Heights address.

More on how this number was built

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