Sierra Vista's Seismic Design Category, explained

USGS's ASCE 7-16 seismic design model - the same standard building codes use - places Sierra Vista in Seismic Design Category B: Low seismic hazard. Code requires basic seismic detailing (bracing, connections) but no special structural system restrictions. That puts Sierra Vista in the 58th percentile nationally for seismic hazard - higher than 58% of the 4,875 US cities USGS was checked against here.

Where Sierra Vista sits in Arizona

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.111g, short-period spectral response 0.251g, 1-second spectral response 0.078g. Among 57 Arizona cities in this dataset, Sierra Vista ranks 29 for seismic hazard, the 50th percentile within the state. About 44,710 people live in Sierra Vista, Arizona.

Retrofit economics for Sierra Vista

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.

Earthquake insurance for a Sierra Vista 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 Sierra Vista address.

More on how this number was built

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