<p>You played within the rules. Houses must be built up (and sold off) evenly within a color group, but different color groups can be built up differently without regard to each other.</p>

<p>The section of <a href="https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Monopoly/Official_Rules" rel="nofollow noreferrer">the rules you quote</a> is exactly the section that supports your play. </p>

<p>Addendum: not an official source, but this same question came up on boardgamegeek (with the same answer).</p>

<p><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/435348/confuse-about-building-evenly" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/435348/confuse-about-building-evenly</a></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-04-23T15:02:43.390Z
2020-04-23T15:46:03.210Z
2020-04-23T15:46:03.210Z
L. Scott Johnson
<p>The rules specify that the build up only applies to the same color group. There is nothing to control what is built on properties of other groups in the rules.</p>

<p><a href="https://www.hasbro.com/common/instruct/monins.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Houses</a></p>

<blockquote>
  <p>But
  you must build evenly, i.e., you cannot erect more than one house on
  any one property of any color-group until you have built one house on
  every property of that group. You may then begin on the second row
  of houses, and so on, up to a limit of four houses to a property. For
  example, you cannot build three houses on one property if you have
  only one house on another property of that group.
  As you build evenly, you must also break down evenly if you sell
  houses back to the Bank (see SELLING PROPERTY).</p>
</blockquote>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-04-23T15:26:04.613Z
2020-04-23T15:26:04.613Z
Joe W
<p>I was playing Monopoly with my friend one day and I had an orange full set AND a red full set. I started to add houses to the sets. However, as soon as I added a second house onto Vine Street/New York (the formation of houses for the oranges and reds were 1-1-2 0-0-0), my friend suddenly told me that I wasn't following the rules of building evenly. According to him, I had to build houses on the reds, i.e. 1-1-1 1-1-1, before I could start on second houses. </p>

<blockquote>
  <p>The properties in a color group must be developed evenly, i.e. each house that is built must go on a property in the group with the fewest number of houses on it so far.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>This is what the rulebook says about building houses evenly across <strong>a</strong> colour set, however, I couldn't find anything that says that houses had to be built evenly <strong>across</strong> colour sets. </p>

<p>Is what I did against the rules?</p>

<monopoly>
Building Houses Evenly in Monopoly
xrider1000
# Building Houses Evenly in Monopoly

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-04-23)

I was playing Monopoly with my friend one day and I had an orange full set AND a red full set. I started to add houses to the sets. However, as soon as I added a second house onto Vine Street/New York (the formation of houses for the oranges and reds were 1-1-2 0-0-0), my friend suddenly told me that I wasn't following the rules of building evenly. According to him, I had to build houses on the reds, i.e. 1-1-1 1-1-1, before I could start on second houses.

> The properties in a color group must be developed evenly, i.e. each house that is built must go on a property in the group with the fewest number of houses on it so far.

This is what the rulebook says about building houses evenly across **a** colour set, however, I couldn't find anything that says that houses had to be built evenly **across** colour sets.

Is what I did against the rules?

**Tags:** monopoly


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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2020-04-23. Score: 5

You played within the rules. Houses must be built up (and sold off) evenly within a color group, but different color groups can be built up differently without regard to each other.

The section of [the rules you quote](https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Monopoly/Official_Rules) is exactly the section that supports your play.

Addendum: not an official source, but this same question came up on boardgamegeek (with the same answer).

<https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/435348/confuse-about-building-evenly>


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### Answer by username_2 on 2020-04-23. Score: 1

The rules specify that the build up only applies to the same color group. There is nothing to control what is built on properties of other groups in the rules.

[Houses](https://www.hasbro.com/common/instruct/monins.pdf)

> But
> you must build evenly, i.e., you cannot erect more than one house on
> any one property of any color-group until you have built one house on
> every property of that group. You may then begin on the second row
> of houses, and so on, up to a limit of four houses to a property. For
> example, you cannot build three houses on one property if you have
> only one house on another property of that group.
> As you build evenly, you must also break down evenly if you sell
> houses back to the Bank (see SELLING PROPERTY).


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