New Haven's Seismic Design Category, explained

New Haven 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, New Haven ranks above 23% of the 4,875 cities in this dataset for seismic hazard - the 23th percentile.

Where New Haven sits in Michigan

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.043g, short-period spectral response 0.088g, 1-second spectral response 0.042g. Among 153 Michigan cities in this dataset, New Haven ranks 100 for seismic hazard, the 35th percentile within the state. About 6,711 people live in New Haven, Michigan.

What a retrofit costs in New Haven

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

More on how this number was built

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