Every listing presentation is stronger with numbers. Below are the most useful home staging statistics available heading into 2026, drawn primarily from the National Association of Realtors' 2025 Profile of Home Staging (surveyed February 2025) — the most authoritative recurring study on the topic — along with what the data means for how you stage.
Staging and sale price
- 29% of sellers' agents reported that staging increased the dollar value buyers offered by 1% to 10%.
- 17% of buyers' agents said a staged home moved their clients' perceived value up 1% to 5%.
- On a $450,000 listing, even the conservative end of that range — a 1% lift — is $4,500, against a median professional staging cost of $1,500.
The takeaway: staging doesn't transform a home's value, but the ROI on the spend is consistently positive, and almost no other marketing expense can claim a documented price effect at all.
Staging and time on market
- 49% of sellers' agents said staging decreased a home's time on market.
- Of those, 30% saw a slight decrease and 19% saw a significant decrease.
- Faster sales compound: fewer carrying costs for the seller, fewer price-drop conversations for you, and a cleaner comp for your next listing in the neighborhood.
The rooms that matter most
When buyers' agents were asked which staged rooms matter most to their clients:
- Living room — 37%
- Primary bedroom — 34%
- Kitchen — 23%
- Guest bedrooms came in last at 7%.
Sellers' agents stage accordingly: 91% stage the living room, 83% the primary bedroom, 69% the dining room, and 68% the kitchen. Guest and children's bedrooms are staged only 22% of the time.
If you're staging on a budget — physical or virtual — this is your priority order. Three great rooms beat eight mediocre ones.
What staging costs
- Median cost of a professional staging service: $1,500 per home.
- Median cost when the agent stages it themselves: $500.
- Virtual staging, by comparison, typically runs $10–$40 per photo from managed services, and less with modern AI-assisted tools — meaning a whole listing can be staged for under $100.
Where virtual staging fits
NAR's 2025 report found agents split on virtual staging: 24% considered it equally important to physical staging, while 34% ranked it as less important. Two things are worth noting about that split.
First, the economics are different in kind. Physical staging at $1,500 makes sense on listings with the margin to support it. Virtual staging at under $100 makes staging viable on every vacant listing — the starter home, the rental turnover, the estate sale — where physical staging was never going to happen. The realistic comparison for most vacant listings isn't virtual versus physical; it's virtual versus empty. And empty rooms photograph small, cold, and confusing.
Second, the quality bar moved. Skepticism about virtual staging tracks the fake-looking output of early tools. Photorealistic staging — correct lighting, shadows, and scale — closes most of the perception gap that drove those "less important" ratings.
Quick stats for your listing presentation
If you only remember five numbers, make them these: 29% of agents see offers rise 1–10% on staged homes; about half of agents see staged homes sell faster; the living room (37%) and primary bedroom (34%) are the rooms buyers care about most; professional staging runs a median $1,500; virtual staging delivers the same first-impression effect online for under $100 per listing.
Want the online-listing version of these results? Yavay stages vacant listing photos photorealistically in hours, not weeks. See examples and pricing — and check our virtual staging statistics page for data specific to virtually staged listings.
Source: National Association of Realtors, 2025 Profile of Home Staging (released May 2025).