Does Prescott Valley, AZ need an earthquake retrofit?

USGS's ASCE 7-16 seismic design model - the same standard building codes use - places Prescott Valley in Seismic Design Category C: 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. That puts Prescott Valley in the 74th percentile nationally for seismic hazard - higher than 74% of the 4,875 US cities USGS was checked against here.

Prescott Valley by the numbers

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.147g, short-period spectral response 0.329g, 1-second spectral response 0.101g. Among 57 Arizona cities in this dataset, Prescott Valley ranks 6 for seismic hazard, the 91th percentile within the state. About 51,440 people live in Prescott Valley, Arizona.

Bracing and bolting: the actual cost

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.

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 Prescott Valley address.

More on how this number was built

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