Does San Andreas fault actually cut through San Francisco? Does it cut through San Jose? Map is misleading… where exactly is the fault?
It’s right under your feet. 
Sell sell sell!!!
The San Andreas fault runs through the mountains on the west side of San Jose and Cupertino.
Which year did the earthquake become mandatory for California construction? Also what strength of earthquake is it designed to protect against?
I believe it changed after the Loma Preita 1989 that did quite a damage in the Bay Area.
The higher it is, the more damage will be incurred. Avoid buying buildings higher than 2 stories in the Bay Area. Sticking with single story homes is your best bet.
Also avoid the hills? I am always suspicious of uphill lots. Risks of being buried alive is too high for my comfort.
No. Actually liquefaction is more prone on flat land. So the higher you go, the safer it is. In order words, buy in Twin Peaks, not Ocean Beach.
My house,single story was built in early 70s. Now need to figure out if it was built by earthquake code.
Here’s a map. I guess yellow is unavoidable because pretty much the entire South Bay is bathed in yellow. But at least try avoiding the red.
https://geomaps.wr.usgs.gov/sfgeo/liquefaction/susceptibility.html
I’ve been in the insurance industry for almost forty years — The truth is, once a while ‘someone’ will fund the news network, to cry the wolf will be coming and the earthquake will be destroying everything.
Every time they do that, it scares people and we sell more earthquake ‘home’ insurance policies.
Earthquake home insurance is good money business — high premium and almost never pay out. Unlike fire or flood, happen every year.
Guess we can replace the bold with anything 
A colleague has earthquake insurance as his parents got paid earthquake insurance due to damage to their house in the 1989 earthquake.
After 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, Bay Area housing market was down. Not sure if that was solely due to earthquake or combined with macro economic state. I didn’t follow real estate at that time.
Anyways, I have friends who joked that they are waiting for the next big one so they can buy a house. And I think it has being 10+ years now, and counting…
Earthquake design requirements have been around since 1906. The 1982 landslides brought the requirement of an Engineer to sign off on sfhs. Created a career for me. Requirements have been increased several times since then.
I purchased earthquake insurance after the 5 mini temblors @ San Jose’s alum rock in July 2017. My EQ premium is 2x my normal home insurance premium. However I’ve been able to sleep peacefully after purchasing it. In the mean time I figured I will look at retrofit etc. Made no progress so far. ( house is single storey ranch 1962 in berryessa hills)
I lucked out on this one. No liquefaction zone within 10 miles and the only major fault line is in the ocean about 10 miles away. This one is a slow moving fault that is capable of a 6.8 and only a once in 700 year fault. It last moved in 1862. Off topic, the woman who won the Boston Marathon was from my city, Chula Vista.