Grants's Seismic Design Category, explained

Grants carries Seismic Design Category C under USGS's ASCE 7-16 model. Moderate seismic hazard. Code adds irregular-building restrictions and requires bracing of some nonstructural components (e.g. tall shelving, water heaters) in addition to structural detailing. That puts Grants in the 73th percentile nationally for seismic hazard - higher than 73% of the 4,875 US cities USGS was checked against here.

Where Grants sits in New Mexico

USGS's underlying values for Grants: 0.132g peak ground acceleration, 0.289g at short period, 0.088g at 1 second. Within New Mexico alone, Grants ranks 16 of 35 cities by seismic hazard - the 56th percentile in-state. Grants has a population of about 8,880.

What a retrofit costs in Grants

A full earthquake retrofit typically runs $5,000-$10,000 nationally (around $7,000 typical), driven mainly by house size and foundation type, not by New Mexico specifically. California's Earthquake Brace + Bolt grant, which covers a large share of this cost, is a California-only program and does not apply in New Mexico.

Insuring against this, not just retrofitting

A Grants homeowner cannot buy a standalone earthquake policy in most cases - it is added to an existing homeowners policy as an endorsement, so the place to start is a regular home-insurance quote.

Where Grants's figures come from

Grants's Category C and every number above trace to USGS's own ASCE 7-16 Design Maps service - see the methodology guide. See the category explainer for what Category C does and doesn't tell you about Grants.