Paramount's Seismic Design Category, explained

USGS's ASCE 7-16 seismic design model - the same standard building codes use - places Paramount in Seismic Design Category D: High seismic hazard - this is the category most of coastal California, the Pacific Northwest, and other active fault regions fall into. Code mandates significant seismic detailing and restricts irregular structural configurations. This is the category the Brace + Bolt scope (cripple-wall bracing, foundation bolting) is built for. That puts Paramount in the 95th percentile nationally for seismic hazard - higher than 95% of the 4,875 US cities USGS was checked against here.

Where Paramount sits in California

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.698g, short-period spectral response 1.637g, 1-second spectral response 0.586g. Among 429 California cities in this dataset, Paramount ranks 183 for seismic hazard, the 57th percentile within the state. About 51,169 people live in Paramount, California.

Retrofit economics for Paramount

Because Paramount is in California, the EBB grant applies if the ZIP code participates and the house qualifies (wood-framed house on a raised (not slab-on-grade) foundation, built before 1980): a $3,000-$7,000 bracing-and-bolting job drops to $0-$4,000 after the $3,000 base grant, or effectively free for income-eligible households getting the full $10,000.

What this means for insurance

Earthquake coverage in California mostly runs through the California Earthquake Authority (CEA), sold only through licensed agents at CEA-participating insurers - there is no direct-to-consumer CEA policy. A general home-insurance quote is the practical starting point for a Paramount homeowner asking about it.

More on how this number was built

The methodology guide covers exactly how USGS's public design-maps API produced Paramount's numbers. The retrofit cost and grant guide covers every EBB eligibility rule, including the ones this page can't check.