Abstract | Steel self-centering moment-resisting frames (SC-MRFs) are a class of resilient structural systems that avoid damage in beams and eliminate residual drifts under the design basis earthquake. In this paper, a building is designed using SC-MRFs or conventional steel moment-resisting frames (MRFs) and the monetary losses of both cases are compared with the aid of the FEMA-P58 methodology. The latter is a performance-based earthquake engineering methodology based on explicit determination of performance (e.g. monetary losses) in a probabilistic manner, where uncertainties in earthquake ground motion, structural response and losses are considered. The results show that SC-MRFs have significantly improved performance compared to conventional MRFs and result in lower seismic losses. The results also highlight the importance of considering residual drifts as a demand parameter controlling whether a building is repairable or needs to be demolished in the aftermath of a strong earthquake.