This little project started when I stumbled on a website of competitive Monopoly tips and strategies. I’ve played Monopoly my entire life, but never once considered employing advanced strategies. The biggest change in my game was the day I passed over the car in favor of the thimble as my token of choice – not only because I decided I wanted something more humble and understated, but also because it allows one to make lisp-based thimble jokes (the thimble of victory, the thimble of eleganth).
That said, one of the tips on the site was to be aware of the relative cost of building on each property. Construction costs range from $50 per home for the most modestly priced properties to $200 per house for those breaking ground on the final leg of the board. I’m not going to give away the secrets of which properties should be at the top of your “buy it” list – but I have laid them all out in a convenient chart.
The vertical lines above each property represent the progression of rental payments for:
- a single owned and undeveloped property
- a single owned and undeveloped property as part of a set (owning all the properties of a given color)
- a property with 1 through 4 houses
- and finally, the property with a hotel
One bit of advice from the tips and tactics site that confused me after I looked over the chart was the recommendation that, given the opportunity, one should always purchase the Utilities properties (The Electric Company and Water Works). I frankly purchase every property that I land on, assuming I can afford it, but had never thought to go out of my way to purchase the Utilities, especially considering that their highest rental price is significantly lower than even Mediterranean Ave’s highest rental rate.
My only guess was that the cost to reach the highest Utilities rental rates (10x the amount thrown on the die for a maximum of $120) is easily reachable though the purchase of the two $150 properties whereas reaching that same level with States Avenue for example would require one to purchase all three purple properties ($440), and then purchase at least 4 homes ($400) – to have one on each property and a second on States for a grand total investment of $840.
In the end it just looks like the Utilities would pay themselves off faster.
(clicking on the image below will open the .pdf in a new window)
