Wood-Ridge's Seismic Design Category, explained

Wood-Ridge carries Seismic Design Category B under USGS's ASCE 7-16 model. Low seismic hazard. Code requires basic seismic detailing (bracing, connections) but no special structural system restrictions. Nationally, Wood-Ridge ranks above 65% of the 4,875 cities in this dataset for seismic hazard - the 65th percentile.

Where Wood-Ridge sits in New Jersey

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.182g, short-period spectral response 0.294g, 1-second spectral response 0.061g. Among 194 New Jersey cities in this dataset, Wood-Ridge ranks 41 for seismic hazard, the 79th percentile within the state. About 10,397 people live in Wood-Ridge, New Jersey.

Retrofit economics for Wood-Ridge

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.

What this means for insurance

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 Wood-Ridge address.

More on how this number was built

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