Does Manasquan, NJ need an earthquake retrofit?

USGS's ASCE 7-16 seismic design model - the same standard building codes use - places Manasquan in Seismic Design 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 Manasquan sits at the 59th percentile for seismic hazard among 4,875 US cities.

Where Manasquan sits in New Jersey

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.117g, short-period spectral response 0.205g, 1-second spectral response 0.05g. Among 194 New Jersey cities in this dataset, Manasquan ranks 153 for seismic hazard, the 21th percentile within the state. About 5,925 people live in Manasquan, New Jersey.

Retrofit economics for Manasquan

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

More on how this number was built

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