Does Pitman, NJ need an earthquake retrofit?

USGS's ASCE 7-16 seismic design model - the same standard building codes use - places Pitman in Seismic Design Category B: Low seismic hazard. Code requires basic seismic detailing (bracing, connections) but no special structural system restrictions. That puts Pitman in the 54th percentile nationally for seismic hazard - higher than 54% of the 4,875 US cities USGS was checked against here.

How Pitman compares

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.091g, short-period spectral response 0.167g, 1-second spectral response 0.045g. Among 194 New Jersey cities in this dataset, Pitman ranks 175 for seismic hazard, the 10th percentile within the state. About 8,943 people live in Pitman, New Jersey.

Retrofit economics for Pitman

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 Pitman 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 Pitman address.

More on how this number was built

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