Homewood, AL: what USGS's seismic model says

Under the seismic model IBC and ASCE 7 use for new construction, Homewood is Category C. 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. Rank it against the rest of the country and Homewood sits at the 76th percentile for seismic hazard among 4,875 US cities.

Homewood by the numbers

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.177g, short-period spectral response 0.301g, 1-second spectral response 0.101g. Among 107 Alabama cities in this dataset, Homewood ranks 15 for seismic hazard, the 87th percentile within the state. About 27,919 people live in Homewood, Alabama.

What a retrofit costs in Homewood

Outside California, no state-level retrofit grant equivalent to Brace + Bolt could be found for Alabama. A typical retrofit still runs $5,000-$10,000 nationally, about $7,000 for a common single-family job.

Earthquake insurance for a Homewood home

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 Homewood address.

More on how this number was built

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