Home staging statistics 2026: what the data actually shows
By Ferit Patefe Coremagna, Founder and CEO, Miravely. Last checked
The most reliable home staging statistics come from NAR’s 2025 Profile of Home Staging: 83% of buyers’ agents said staging makes it easier for buyers to picture a home as theirs, 29% of agents saw offers rise by 1% to 10%, and a staging service cost a median of $1,500. Most other figures in circulation trace back to older NAR surveys or to small studies by the staging industry, and the best known, “staged homes sell 73% faster”, comes from a 2011 report on 174 homes that had already failed to sell.
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Home staging statistics from NAR’s 2025 survey
NAR surveyed its members in February 2025: 49,806 invited, 1,266 usable responses, a margin of error of 2.75 points. These are agents’ reports of what they saw, not measured sale prices, which is the first thing to know about every figure below.
| Question | What agents said in 2025 |
|---|---|
| Does staging help buyers picture the home? | 83% of buyers’ agents said staging made it easier for a buyer to visualize the property as a future home. NAR, 2025 Profile of Home Staging, full report |
| Does it change buyers’ view of the home? | 60% of buyers’ agents said it affects some buyers but not always, 26% said most buyers, and 12% said it has no effect. NAR, 2025 Profile of Home Staging, full report |
| Does it raise offers? | 29% of agents reported offers 1% to 10% higher on staged homes, and 17% of buyers’ agents said 1% to 5% higher than similar unstaged homes. NAR, 2025 Profile of Home Staging, May 6, 2025 |
| Does it sell homes faster? | 49% of sellers’ agents said staging reduced time on the market: 30% a slight decrease, 19% a significant one. NAR, 2025 Profile of Home Staging, May 6, 2025 |
| What does it cost? | A median of $1,500 when a staging service did the work, and $500 when the listing agent staged the home personally. NAR, 2025 Profile of Home Staging, full report |
| How many agents stage? | 21% of sellers’ agents stage every listing and 10% only the hard-to-sell ones. 51% do not stage but tell the seller to declutter or fix faults. NAR, 2025 Profile of Home Staging, full report |
| Which rooms get staged? | The living room (91%), primary bedroom (83%), dining room (69%) and kitchen (68%). Guest and children’s bedrooms, 22% each. NAR, 2025 Profile of Home Staging, full report |
| Do TV shows set the bar? | 48% said buyers expected homes to look staged the way they are on TV, and 58% said buyers were disappointed by how homes looked by comparison. NAR, 2025 Profile of Home Staging, full report |
Which rooms matter most to stage
NAR asked buyers’ agents to rate the importance of staging each room separately. The living room came out on top, with 37% calling it very important, then the primary bedroom at 34% and the kitchen at 23%. The guest bedroom was lowest at 7%. NAR, 2025 Profile of Home Staging, full report
Because each room was rated on its own, the percentages do not add up to 100 and should not be quoted as shares, which is how several staging pages present them.
Buyers’ agents who called staging each room very important, 2025
Living room
37%Primary bedroom
34%Kitchen
23%Dining room
17%Yard or outside space
17%Bathroom
13%Children’s bedroom
9%Guest bedroom
7%
What changed between NAR’s 2023 and 2025 surveys
The biggest shift is in how much agents think staging moves buyers. In 2023, 58% of buyers’ agents said it affected most buyers’ view of a home most of the time. In 2025, 26% said it affected most buyers, and 60% said some buyers but not always. NAR, 2023 Profile of Home Staging, full report
Belief that staging helps buyers picture the home barely moved, from 81% to 83%. The share of buyers’ agents who called video important to their clients fell from 74% to 48%. NAR, 2023 Profile of Home Staging, full report
The cost moved the other way. The median spent on a staging service was $600 in the 2023 survey and $1,500 in 2025; staging done by the agent went from $400 to $500. The two surveys had different samples, 1,921 responses in 2023 against 1,266 in 2025, so small changes may be noise. A drop from 58% to 26% is not. NAR, 2025 Profile of Home Staging, full report
Buyers’ and sellers’ agents in NAR’s surveys, 2023 and 2025
20232025
Staging affects most buyers’ view of the home
2023: 58%2025: 26%Staging makes it easier to picture the home as theirs
2023: 81%2025: 83%Video is important to buyers’ clients
2023: 74%2025: 48%Sellers’ agents who stage every listing
2023: 23%2025: 21%
Where “staged homes sell 73% faster” comes from
The figure comes from a 2011 report by the Real Estate Staging Association, the stagers’ trade body. It followed 174 homes that had been on the market for an average of 156 days without selling. They were then staged, relisted and sold in an average of 42 days, which is 73% less time. AtWell Staged Home, quoting RESA’s 2011 report
It compares the same homes before and after staging, with no unstaged homes in it at all. The same homes were relisted later, in a different month of the market, and as the stager who quotes the study points out, nobody recorded whether the price was cut or the agent changed in between. Either could explain much of the difference. AtWell Staged Home, quoting RESA’s 2011 report
It is also 15 years old and still presented as current. Home Staging Institute’s statistics page, titled as a 2025 update, lists it as “Homes that are staged sell 73% faster than those that are not staged”, which is not what the study measured. Home Staging Institute, “Home Staging Statistics”
What RESA’s 2,334% return on staging measures
RESA’s Q1 2025 market insights report an average return on staging of 2,334%, homes on the market for 12 days on average and a sale-to-list ratio of 107%, across 84 homes sold in the first quarter of 2025. RESA, “What’s the Real ROI of Home Staging?”, June 26, 2025
Those 84 homes come from RESA’s Sold Over List Price Club, a program that, as its name says, collects staged homes sold over their asking price. A sample chosen because the homes sold over asking will show that they sold over asking. It says nothing about the staged homes that did not, or about what the same homes would have fetched unstaged. RESA, “What’s the Real ROI of Home Staging?”, June 26, 2025
None of that makes staging worthless. It means the return on staging has not been measured independently, and any single figure for it is a marketing number.
Staging statistics to double-check before you quote them
“77% of buyers’ agents say staging helps buyers visualize the home.” That is NAR’s 2017 figure. The 2023 survey found 81% and the 2025 survey 83%. NAR, 2017 Profile of Home Staging
“38% of sellers’ agents stage every home.” Also 2017. The figure was 23% in 2023 and 21% in 2025, and in 2025 more than half of sellers’ agents said they do not stage at all but ask the seller to declutter instead. NAR, 2017 Profile of Home Staging
The 2025 buyer figures reversed. At least one statistics page gives them as 60% saying staging affects most buyers and 26% saying some buyers, the other way round from NAR’s report. RubyHome, “Home Staging Statistics”
“Staging costs 1% to 3% of the asking price.” We could not find a source for it. NAR’s median for a staging service, $1,500, is well under 1% of most asking prices. Home Staging Institute, “Home Staging Statistics”
Unedited photoVirtual staging statistics
Agents rate virtual staging below the real thing. In NAR’s 2025 survey, 38% of buyers’ agents said virtual staging mattered less to their clients, and 34% of sellers’ agents said the same. NAR, 2025 Profile of Home Staging, full report
Altered photos are common all the same. A study of about 40,000 primary listing photos on the four largest US portals in early 2026 found signs of digital alteration in nearly 11% of them. RealEstateNews.com
There is no published study yet of what virtual staging does to sale prices or time on market. Anyone quoting one should be able to link to it.
AI-generatedHow to check a staging statistic before you use it
- Go to the original report and note its year; a page quoting it is not enough. NAR has published a Profile of Home Staging every two years. NAR, 2025 Profile of Home Staging, full report
- Check what was compared: staged homes against unstaged ones, or the same homes before and after. AtWell Staged Home, quoting RESA’s 2011 report
- Check who was asked. NAR’s figures are agents’ reports of what they saw, not measured sale prices. NAR, 2025 Profile of Home Staging, full report
- Check how the sample was chosen. A club of homes that sold over asking cannot show whether staging made them sell over asking. RESA, “What’s the Real ROI of Home Staging?”, June 26, 2025
- Quote medians for costs, and say which kind of staging the figure is for: a service, the agent’s own, or virtual. NAR, 2025 Profile of Home Staging, full report
- Do not add up room ratings: NAR rated each room separately. NAR, 2025 Profile of Home Staging, full report
- If a number has no link, leave it out.
Common questions
Do staged homes sell faster?
Many agents think so. In NAR’s 2025 survey, 49% of sellers’ agents said staging reduced a home’s time on the market, 30% slightly and 19% significantly. There is no controlled study, and the widely quoted “73% faster” comes from a 2011 before-and-after of 174 homes.
NAR, 2025 Profile of Home Staging, May 6, 2025Do staged homes sell for more?
Sometimes, by agents’ accounts. In NAR’s 2025 survey, 19% of sellers’ agents reported offers 1% to 5% higher on staged homes, while 41% of buyers’ agents said staging made no difference to the offer.
NAR, 2025 Profile of Home Staging, full reportHow much does home staging cost?
NAR’s 2025 survey put the median at $1,500 when a staging service did the work and $500 when the agent staged the home personally, up from $600 and $400 in 2023.
NAR, 2025 Profile of Home Staging, full reportWhat percentage of agents stage homes?
In NAR’s 2025 survey, 21% of sellers’ agents said they stage every listing and 10% only the hard-to-sell ones, while 51% said they do not stage but ask the seller to declutter or fix faults.
NAR, 2025 Profile of Home Staging, full reportIs it true that staged homes sell 73% faster?
Not in the way it is usually quoted. The figure comes from a 2011 RESA report on 174 homes that had failed to sell, were staged and relisted, and then sold in 42 days instead of 156. It compares the same homes before and after, without recording price cuts or agent changes.
AtWell Staged Home, quoting RESA’s 2011 reportWhat is the ROI of home staging?
Nobody has measured it independently. RESA reports an average return of 2,334% for the first quarter of 2025, but its sample is 84 homes from a club that tracks staged homes sold over their asking price.
RESA, “What’s the Real ROI of Home Staging?”, June 26, 2025Which rooms are most important to stage?
The living room, the primary bedroom and the kitchen. In NAR’s 2025 survey, 37%, 34% and 23% of buyers’ agents called staging each of them very important, against 7% for the guest bedroom.
NAR, 2025 Profile of Home Staging, full reportDoes virtual staging work as well as real staging?
Agents do not think so. In NAR’s 2025 survey, 38% of buyers’ agents and 34% of sellers’ agents said virtual staging mattered less to their clients. No published study has measured its effect on sale prices.
NAR, 2025 Profile of Home Staging, full reportMiravely’s virtual staging costs cents a photo rather than a median $1,500, and keeps the empty original beside every staged result so buyers can see both.