Forest Hills, PA: what USGS's seismic model says

Forest Hills 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, Forest Hills ranks above 22% of the 4,875 cities in this dataset for seismic hazard - the 22th percentile.

Where Forest Hills sits in Pennsylvania

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.042g, short-period spectral response 0.089g, 1-second spectral response 0.045g. Among 193 Pennsylvania cities in this dataset, Forest Hills ranks 160 for seismic hazard, the 17th percentile within the state. About 6,186 people live in Forest Hills, Pennsylvania.

Retrofit economics for Forest Hills

Outside California, no state-level retrofit grant equivalent to Brace + Bolt could be found for Pennsylvania. 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 Forest Hills address.

More on how this number was built

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