Midlothian's Seismic Design Category, explained

Under the seismic model IBC and ASCE 7 use for new construction, Midlothian is Category B. Low seismic hazard. Code requires basic seismic detailing (bracing, connections) but no special structural system restrictions. That puts Midlothian in the 21th percentile nationally for seismic hazard - higher than 21% of the 4,875 US cities USGS was checked against here.

Midlothian by the numbers

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.04g, short-period spectral response 0.084g, 1-second spectral response 0.05g. Among 384 Texas cities in this dataset, Midlothian ranks 161 for seismic hazard, the 58th percentile within the state. About 44,104 people live in Midlothian, Texas.

What a retrofit costs in Midlothian

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

Earthquake insurance for a Midlothian 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 Midlothian address.

More on how this number was built

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