Oxford's Seismic Design Category, explained

USGS's ASCE 7-16 seismic design model - the same standard building codes use - places Oxford in Seismic Design Category B: Low seismic hazard. Code requires basic seismic detailing (bracing, connections) but no special structural system restrictions. Nationally, Oxford ranks above 47% of the 4,875 cities in this dataset for seismic hazard - the 47th percentile.

Oxford by the numbers

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.072g, short-period spectral response 0.145g, 1-second spectral response 0.076g. Among 254 Ohio cities in this dataset, Oxford ranks 85 for seismic hazard, the 67th percentile within the state. About 22,585 people live in Oxford, Ohio.

Retrofit economics for Oxford

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

More on how this number was built

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