Foster City's Seismic Design Category, explained

Foster City carries Seismic Design Category D under USGS's ASCE 7-16 model. High seismic hazard - this is the category most of coastal California, the Pacific Northwest, and other active fault regions fall into. Code mandates significant seismic detailing and restricts irregular structural configurations. This is the category the Brace + Bolt scope (cripple-wall bracing, foundation bolting) is built for. Nationally, Foster City ranks above 93% of the 4,875 cities in this dataset for seismic hazard - the 93th percentile.

Where Foster City sits in California

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.616g, short-period spectral response 1.5g, 1-second spectral response 0.6g. Among 429 California cities in this dataset, Foster City ranks 235 for seismic hazard, the 45th percentile within the state. About 32,657 people live in Foster City, California.

Bracing and bolting: the actual cost

Because Foster City is in California, the EBB grant applies if the ZIP code participates and the house qualifies (wood-framed house on a raised (not slab-on-grade) foundation, built before 1980): a $3,000-$7,000 bracing-and-bolting job drops to $0-$4,000 after the $3,000 base grant, or effectively free for income-eligible households getting the full $10,000.

What this means for insurance

Earthquake coverage in California mostly runs through the California Earthquake Authority (CEA), sold only through licensed agents at CEA-participating insurers - there is no direct-to-consumer CEA policy. A general home-insurance quote is the practical starting point for a Foster City homeowner asking about it.

More on how this number was built

The methodology guide covers exactly how USGS's public design-maps API produced Foster City's numbers. The retrofit cost and grant guide covers every EBB eligibility rule, including the ones this page can't check.