Does Union Beach, NJ need an earthquake retrofit?

USGS's ASCE 7-16 seismic design model - the same standard building codes use - places Union Beach in Seismic Design Category B: Low seismic hazard. Code requires basic seismic detailing (bracing, connections) but no special structural system restrictions. Nationally, Union Beach ranks above 62% of the 4,875 cities in this dataset for seismic hazard - the 62th percentile.

How Union Beach compares

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.16g, short-period spectral response 0.264g, 1-second spectral response 0.056g. Among 194 New Jersey cities in this dataset, Union Beach ranks 111 for seismic hazard, the 43th percentile within the state. About 5,691 people live in Union Beach, New Jersey.

Retrofit economics for Union Beach

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 Union Beach 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 Union Beach address.

More on how this number was built

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