Payson's Seismic Design Category, explained

Payson carries Seismic Design Category C under USGS's ASCE 7-16 model. Moderate seismic hazard. Code adds irregular-building restrictions and requires bracing of some nonstructural components (e.g. tall shelving, water heaters) in addition to structural detailing. Nationally, Payson ranks above 72% of the 4,875 cities in this dataset for seismic hazard - the 72th percentile.

Payson by the numbers

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.121g, short-period spectral response 0.272g, 1-second spectral response 0.086g. Among 57 Arizona cities in this dataset, Payson ranks 14 for seismic hazard, the 77th percentile within the state. About 16,762 people live in Payson, Arizona.

What a retrofit costs in Payson

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

More on how this number was built

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