Does Medford, MA need an earthquake retrofit?

USGS's ASCE 7-16 seismic design model - the same standard building codes use - places Medford 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 Medford sits at the 64th percentile for seismic hazard among 4,875 US cities.

Where Medford sits in Massachusetts

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.174g, short-period spectral response 0.288g, 1-second spectral response 0.068g. Among 58 Massachusetts cities in this dataset, Medford ranks 16 for seismic hazard, the 74th percentile within the state. About 59,898 people live in Medford, Massachusetts.

Retrofit economics for Medford

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

Earthquake insurance for a Medford 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 Medford address.

More on how this number was built

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