Star's Seismic Design Category, explained

Star 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. That puts Star in the 73th percentile nationally for seismic hazard - higher than 73% of the 4,875 US cities USGS was checked against here.

How Star compares

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.131g, short-period spectral response 0.296g, 1-second spectral response 0.108g. Among 36 Idaho cities in this dataset, Star ranks 25 for seismic hazard, the 31th percentile within the state. About 18,208 people live in Star, Idaho.

Retrofit economics for Star

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

Earthquake insurance for a Star 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 Star address.

More on how this number was built

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