Farmington's Seismic Design Category, explained

USGS's ASCE 7-16 seismic design model - the same standard building codes use - places Farmington in Seismic Design Category B: Low seismic hazard. Code requires basic seismic detailing (bracing, connections) but no special structural system restrictions. Nationally, Farmington ranks above 29% of the 4,875 cities in this dataset for seismic hazard - the 29th percentile.

Farmington by the numbers

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.048g, short-period spectral response 0.097g, 1-second spectral response 0.045g. Among 153 Michigan cities in this dataset, Farmington ranks 65 for seismic hazard, the 58th percentile within the state. About 11,547 people live in Farmington, Michigan.

Retrofit economics for Farmington

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.

Earthquake insurance for a Farmington home

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 Farmington address.

More on how this number was built

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