Valley Stream, NY: what USGS's seismic model says

Under the seismic model IBC and ASCE 7 use for new construction, Valley Stream is Category B. Low seismic hazard. Code requires basic seismic detailing (bracing, connections) but no special structural system restrictions. That puts Valley Stream in the 63th percentile nationally for seismic hazard - higher than 63% of the 4,875 US cities USGS was checked against here.

Valley Stream by the numbers

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.16g, short-period spectral response 0.264g, 1-second spectral response 0.057g. Among 170 New York cities in this dataset, Valley Stream ranks 57 for seismic hazard, the 67th percentile within the state. About 40,232 people live in Valley Stream, New York.

What a retrofit costs in Valley Stream

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

Earthquake insurance for a Valley Stream 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 Valley Stream address.

More on how this number was built

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