Paramus, NJ: what USGS's seismic model says

Paramus 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. That puts Paramus in the 66th percentile nationally for seismic hazard - higher than 66% of the 4,875 US cities USGS was checked against here.

Where Paramus sits in New Jersey

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.184g, short-period spectral response 0.296g, 1-second spectral response 0.061g. Among 194 New Jersey cities in this dataset, Paramus ranks 16 for seismic hazard, the 92th percentile within the state. About 26,786 people live in Paramus, New Jersey.

What a retrofit costs in Paramus

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

Earthquake insurance for a Paramus 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 Paramus address.

More on how this number was built

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