Does Penn Yan, NY need an earthquake retrofit?

Under the seismic model IBC and ASCE 7 use for new construction, Penn Yan is Category B. Low seismic hazard. Code requires basic seismic detailing (bracing, connections) but no special structural system restrictions. Rank it against the rest of the country and Penn Yan sits at the 45th percentile for seismic hazard among 4,875 US cities.

Where Penn Yan sits in New York

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.07g, short-period spectral response 0.136g, 1-second spectral response 0.046g. Among 170 New York cities in this dataset, Penn Yan ranks 152 for seismic hazard, the 11th percentile within the state. About 5,024 people live in Penn Yan, New York.

Retrofit economics for Penn Yan

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

What this means for insurance

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 Penn Yan address.

More on how this number was built

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