Traverse City's Seismic Design Category, explained

Traverse City carries Seismic Design Category A under USGS's ASCE 7-16 model. Lowest seismic design category. Building code requires no seismic-specific detailing here beyond ordinary construction practice. Rank it against the rest of the country and Traverse City sits at the 5th percentile for seismic hazard among 4,875 US cities.

Where Traverse City sits in Michigan

USGS's underlying values for Traverse City: 0.023g peak ground acceleration, 0.05g at short period, 0.033g at 1 second. Within Michigan alone, Traverse City ranks 144 of 153 cities by seismic hazard - the 6th percentile in-state. Traverse City has a population of about 15,782.

What a retrofit costs in Traverse City

A full earthquake retrofit typically runs $5,000-$10,000 nationally (around $7,000 typical), driven mainly by house size and foundation type, not by Michigan specifically. California's Earthquake Brace + Bolt grant, which covers a large share of this cost, is a California-only program and does not apply in Michigan.

Insuring against this, not just retrofitting

A Traverse City homeowner cannot buy a standalone earthquake policy in most cases - it is added to an existing homeowners policy as an endorsement, so the place to start is a regular home-insurance quote.

Where Traverse City's figures come from

Traverse City's Category A and every number above trace to USGS's own ASCE 7-16 Design Maps service - see the methodology guide. See the category explainer for what Category A does and doesn't tell you about Traverse City.