Monroe's Seismic Design Category, explained

Monroe carries Seismic Design Category B under USGS's ASCE 7-16 model. Low seismic hazard. Code requires basic seismic detailing (bracing, connections) but no special structural system restrictions. Nationally, Monroe ranks above 62% of the 4,875 cities in this dataset for seismic hazard - the 62th percentile.

How Monroe compares

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.154g, short-period spectral response 0.258g, 1-second spectral response 0.058g. Among 170 New York cities in this dataset, Monroe ranks 70 for seismic hazard, the 59th percentile within the state. About 9,502 people live in Monroe, New York.

Retrofit economics for Monroe

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

More on how this number was built

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