Does Hobart, IN need an earthquake retrofit?

Under the seismic model IBC and ASCE 7 use for new construction, Hobart is Category B. Low seismic hazard. Code requires basic seismic detailing (bracing, connections) but no special structural system restrictions. Rank it against the rest of the country and Hobart sits at the 34th percentile for seismic hazard among 4,875 US cities.

How Hobart compares

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.056g, short-period spectral response 0.115g, 1-second spectral response 0.066g. Among 126 Indiana cities in this dataset, Hobart ranks 111 for seismic hazard, the 12th percentile within the state. About 29,418 people live in Hobart, Indiana.

Retrofit economics for Hobart

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

More on how this number was built

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