Do you have to build houses evenly in Monopoly?
Yes. Once you own a whole color set, you can't put a second house on any street until every street in that set has one, and so on, up to four houses each before hotels. You also have to sell houses back evenly, and you can't build if any street in the set is mortgaged.
The rule:
In Monopoly, you must build evenly across a color set: no street can get a second house until every street in the set has one, and the same rule applies when you sell houses back.
Building rules:
- Own the whole set first. Then you can buy houses at any time, even on other players’ turns.
- Build evenly: each street in the set gets a house before any street gets another.
- Four houses max per street. With four houses on every street in the set, you can upgrade a street to a hotel: pay the hotel cost on its Title Deed and return its four houses to the Bank.
- One hotel per street, and no more houses on top of it.
- No building on a set with a mortgaged street.
Selling evenly: houses are sold back to the Bank for half price, and also have to come off evenly across the set.
Running out: if the Bank has no houses left, nobody can buy one until someone sells some back. If several players want the last house or hotel, the Banker auctions it.
Example:
Kim owns all three streets in a color set and puts her first house on her favorite one. Before it can have a second house, the other two streets each need one. She buys those, and then she can add the second house.
Why players argue about it:
Players often pile houses onto the most expensive street in a set, or build before owning the whole set.