Hobbs's Seismic Design Category, explained

Under the seismic model IBC and ASCE 7 use for new construction, Hobbs is Category A. Lowest seismic design category. Building code requires no seismic-specific detailing here beyond ordinary construction practice. That puts Hobbs in the 15th percentile nationally for seismic hazard - higher than 15% of the 4,875 US cities USGS was checked against here.

Where Hobbs sits in New Mexico

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.056g, short-period spectral response 0.109g, 1-second spectral response 0.034g. Among 35 New Mexico cities in this dataset, Hobbs ranks 29 for seismic hazard, the 18th percentile within the state. About 41,061 people live in Hobbs, New Mexico.

Retrofit economics for Hobbs

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

More on how this number was built

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